Dead
by eseiprahs1
Summary: Zombies have taken over. With Metro City now in ruins and zombies lurking about, the ones left have to find a way to survive. In this new dangerous world, people have to learn to put their differences aside and work together. This is a world in which the Megamind movie never happened. Rating may go up to M.
1. Chapter 1

**Dead**

**One**

_**"All around me are familiar faces. Worn out places. Worn out faces. Bright and early for the daily races. Going no where. Going no where. Their tears are filling up their glasses. No expression. No expression. Hide my head I wanna drown my sorrow. No tomorrow. No tomorrow. And I find it kind of funny. I find it kind of sad. The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had. I find it hard to tell you, I find it hard to take. When people run in circles it's a very, very mad world. Mad world."**_

_**-Mad World by Gary Jules (song)**_

"Several citizens in the area have been complaining about severe fevers, aches, and pains in their bodies. Calls have been coming in almost non-stop all night and it's making the doctors hope that the epidemic does not become more serious. Not only are the doctors not quite sure what it is, but it seems to be spreading at an alarmingly fast pace. So make sure you wash your hands and stay healthy! If you develop any symptoms, be sure to call the doctor."

Roxanne Ritchi made the cut-off motion with her hand and then grinned at her camera man, Hal. His short red hair seemed to glow in the dark of the evening.

The evening seemed normal other than the streets being unnaturally quiet and still while Metro City was normally buzzing with activity.

"Nice job Roxie!" Hal said as he gave her a thumbs up and began packing away his equipment.

Roxanne grinned at him. "Thanks Hal. Unless you need help putting everything back in the van I'm going to head off. I need to get back home and write on a report I'm supposed to be giving in a couple days."

"Okay Rox, but hold on," Hal said, making Roxanne turn back around and look at him curiously. "Be careful alright? You know what tomorrow is right?"

Roxanne thought for a moment, biting her lip, and then she remembered. Rolling her eyes she said, "Yes, I remember. It's my kidnapping day. Don't worry about it, Megamind is harmless."

"_Harmless_?" Hal asked as though she'd gone mad. "Roxanne, he's a _villain_. A _criminal."_

"I _know_, but he's never hurt me before so why should he now," Roxanne reasoned. "Relax, you're not even the one that's going to be kidnapped within the next twenty-four hours."

"It's actually a little strange how calm you're being about this," Hal said with slumped shoulders and a cocked brow.

Roxanne smiled at him and turned back around. With a small wave over her shoulder she said, "Goodnight Hal!"

"'Night Roxie!" she heard him call back as she stepped into her car.

After waving to the doorman and grabbing a Styrofoam cup of coffee from the lobby, Roxanne was back up in her apartment, sitting at her laptop. She stayed up typing away for hours before sitting back and rubbing her eyes. When she went to take another sip of coffee, she noticed it was empty. All she got was a cold left-over drip. Roxanne placed the cup back on the desk and decided to pack it in for the night.

Once in bed, she thought for a short moment about Megamind and what his plan was for her tomorrow. Normally, the thought of being kidnapped brought terror to people. For Roxanne, this thought made her smile as she fell asleep.

The steady beeping of the alarm clock awoke Roxanne the next morning at five o'clock. Sitting up and stretching she looked out the window where it was only a little dark out since it was the end of spring. Walking into the kitchen, she started making coffee and turned on the television at the same time. She enjoyed listening to her own channel in the morning before she arrived there to report.

As she scooped spoonfuls of coffee grounds into the maker, she listened to the television; but what she heard made her stop and look at the television screen from over her counter.

The screen showed a strange alert symbol and was setting off a monotone voice over again. The voice continued saying:

"Do not panic. Stay safe in your homes. Do not panic. Stay safe in your homes. Do not panic."

Roxanne furrowed her eyebrows and placed the spoon on the counter. Was this because of something Megamind had done to the city? But…he hadn't even kidnapped her. And it couldn't be the weather, it looked fine. No strong winds, rain, or anything.

Roxanne tried switching the channel but every single one had the same thing. Finally, she couldn't stand the sound of the voice anymore and she turned it off. So, this meant no work she supposed?

**/\\\**

"Do not panic. Stay safe in your homes. Do not panic. Stay safe in your homes. Do not panic. Stay safe in your homes. Do not panic. Stay safe in your homes. Do not-"

A hard kick to the radio made the mono-tone voice leave the speakers and be replaced with soft static. It now lay on its side as a pair of six-inch, tied, black leather boots walked past.

"Honestly!" Megamind said, aggravated. He walked slowly along a brick wall wearing a black t-shirt and dark grey jeans. It was far from his normal attire but it was far too hot out to wear his usual leather and it was far too difficult to move about in during recent events. He continued talking in an aggravated tone as he held his hand gun in front of him, "If I hear that moono-tone voice speak anywhere else I'm going to-"

"It's _mono_-tone sir," Minion corrected as he walked behind the blue alien.

"What?" he asked, lowering his gun and staring back at his fishy friend.

"It's mono-tone, not moono-tone," Minion said again.

Megamind glared at him and said, "Really Minion, in spite of recent events I would have figured you to have dropped this correcting thing."

Minion was going to say more but a gargling breath cut him short. The fish's eyes went wide for a moment before Megamind whipped around and looked at the woman. Or at least...what was left of her. It was easy to tell that at one time she'd been a woman but now she was a walking monster. A zombie.

Half of its hair was hanging from a flap of skin that still clung to its head but was peeled off the skull, exposing red mush underneath. Its eyes contained no pupils, just a dirty yellow and white mixture. Its bottom lip hung from its mouth, exposing the bottom row of teeth. Blood still dripped down its face from the severe head wound. It snarled as it spotted them and took a step forward.

"She looks freshly turned," Megamind said as he watched the woman eye them hungrily.

Minion winced and looked a tad greener than usual as he saw the terrible injury to her head. The zombie took in a rattling wet breath and opened its mouth in a hungry grunting roar. Just as she started to charge at them, Megamind held up his gun and shot it with a loud bang.

The bullet went right in the middle of its forehead and it let out a final grunt as the tiny projectile hit its skull. It then fell to the ground with a thud, its limbs sprawled on the road and its mouth open.

Minion, still wincing, looked at the zombie on the ground. "I'm going to have to be less squeamish if this is going to keep happening."

Megamind didn't respond to this comment but instead said to his friend, "Remember, keep your eyes peeled for any more. The gun shot could have attracted others."

Minion nodded in response and they continued walking through the empty, rubble-covered streets.

**/\\\**

Roxanne placed the phone back on the receiver and crossed her arms. For the past five minutes she'd been calling her work and no one was answering. She had dressed in her work clothes already - a dress with a loose blue top and tight grey bottom. After a few moments of sitting on the bed, waiting to be called back, she took out her cell phone and tried again.

After a few rings, she thought no one would pick up again. Just when she started to get exasperated though, a quivering voice said, "H-hello?"

Roxanne cocked up a brow and said, "Hello? This is Roxanne."

"Roxanne Ritchi?" the voice asked. She didn't recognize the voice but whoever it was sounded scared and upset.

"Yes," Roxanne answered uncertainly. "Who is this? Are you alright?"

"Where are you?" the voice asked, it sounded female. "Are you with any police officers or anyone that could help?"

This alarmed Roxanne and her eyes widened. She stood up from the bed immediately and paced. "What? Help with what? Are you alright?"

"Please tell me you're with someone that can help me!" the woman said in a tear-stained voice.

"I'm not with anyone but I'll call the police-" Roxanne said urgently. She was fearful for this woman, she had no clue what had happened to her.

"There's no use doing that. They won't answer," she said and then gasped.

"What? What is it?" Roxanne asked.

"Oh, oh no...there's one here!" the woman whispered into the phone.

"One what?" Roxanne asked. "Ma'am? Hello?"

"There's more! Please, please help me-" the woman cried.

Roxanne was about to answer but what she heard next sent intense shivers up her spine. The pleading and then blood curdling scream caused Roxanne to almost drop her cell phone. Roxanne stood unmoving as the woman's screams were in a mix with loud snarling. The line then went dead and a steady beep could be heard.

Roxanne dropped the phone and backed away as though whatever had attacked the woman on the other end would crawl out and get her too. Her breathing fast and heart thudding in her chest, she backed against the window on the other side of the room. Then she noticed something and she stopped breathing so she could listen harder.

There was no noise. The usual sound of cars from the street was nonexistant. Roxanne turned around to look out the window and her eyes widened at what she saw.

Cars turned on their sides, papers floating down the street in the wind, the shop that was across the street from her's window was broken.

Roxanne's mouth was agape as she stared. What happened? A tornado? That didn't even seem to be possible, tornados didn't happen where they were.

Roxanne stared down at the street for a little bit longer before her nosy reporter skills kicked in. Grabbing her cell phone from the floor, she walked out her bedroom door and grabbed her apartment key from a kitchen drawer. She turned the heat off of her coffee machine and left the half-full pot untouched.

As soon as she opened the door and walked out into the hallway she stopped in midstep. There were two arm chairs turned upside down in the middle of the hallway and almost all of the doors to the other apartments stood ajar. Once she started walking again, her eyes widened at a bloody hand print that appeared to have dragged along the wall.

There was an awful smell all throughout the hallway and she plugged her nose. What was going on?

Roxanne soon stopped walking again as she heard a strange noise. It sounded like someone eating messily. She looked through one room but saw nothing but a messy apartment. No people were inside. Then, looking in the apartment to her left she paused with her hand on the door frame.

With furrowed brows, she tried to decipher what the noise was. It was definitely coming from the room she was leaning in, though she couldn't see anyone. Her eyes then trailed over to the floor about ten feet in front of her and she felt herself tremble. A large, dark red blood stain was on the floor right beside the sofa. The television was turned on with the same monotone voice repeating: "Do not panic. Stay safe in your homes. Do not panic. Stay safe in your homes."

Roxanne's nosy reporter skills kicked in again and she walked into the room slowly. The sloppy sound was louder now and she looked around again to try and find what it was. Once in the middle of the apartment, she turned to the right and saw someone crouched on the ground over a bloody body.

The sight made Roxanne gasp and back into the wall with a hard thud. The sound seemed to distract whatever the person was doing because he sat up and turned around. This man, however, was not normal by any stretch.

His skin had a grey tint and his eyes were sunk into his head. The color of his eyes were a mix of grey, yellow, and red. His hands and clothes were covered in blood and he appeared to be smacking loudly. His mouth, inside and out, was covered with blood.

In Roxanne's shocked mind, she then realized that this man, or whatever it was, had been eating the dead body on the ground. The bloodied man stared at her and opened his mouth wide and let out a snarling roar. Some of the flesh in his mouth fell out and sprayed on the carpet in front of him.

Then he charged.

Screaming, Roxanne ran out of the apartment and down the hall. She ran past the tipped over arm chairs and turned the corner toward the elevator. The sound of clumsy, fast footsteps could be heard behind her as she pressed the elevator button wildly.

"Come on, come on!" she cried with clenched teeth. The arrow button wasn't lighting up though so she gave up just as the crazed man came around the corner.

Roxanne opened the door to the stairwell and ran down the steps faster than she ever thought she could. The man ran into the closed door, running into it right after it latched.

Roxanne had tears rolling down her face as she burst out of her apartment building. Roxanne looked up and down the street, wondering frantically where to go. It was then that she felt something grip her ankle and she screamed and looked down to see a woman with long brown hair. Her lips were missing, leaving her teeth bared, and her eyes were a dirty yellow with pupils that stared wildly up at her.

This wasn't the most shocking however. Her lower half was missing. All that was there was her bloody spine that issued from her lower back.

Roxanne screamed again as she fought her ankle out of the woman's grip. Once she pulled free, she took off running down the street. She wasn't sure where she was going to go, just anywhere but there.

As she ran around the corner, sobbing and tears falling freely down her face, she didn't see the trash can in the middle of the street and she tripped over it. Her arm became cut badly from large piece of broken glass and she let out a yelp of pain. When she opened her eyes, she saw a pair of moccasins right in front of her face and she looked up to see who they belonged to. Staring down at her was a man with a bared, bloody mouth and no lips.

Roxanne stood up and started to run down the street but saw more of these people staring at her. After a moment of shocked silence, she took off running down the street and past the gory people. They immediately took off after her, some of them running and some fast-paced walking and making snarling and growling noises at her.

**/\\\**

The zombie dressed in a police uniform growled at him with dirty, bloody teeth before being shot in the head. The zombie fell to the ground, it's head hitting the curb with a painful sounding thunk.

"I do hope we find more survivors," Minion said as he looked around fearfully for any more zombies.

"I do too, Minion. I do too," Megamind agreed as they continued walking warily down the street. There was one thought that kept coming up in his mind that bothered him most among the wondering thought of how zombies managed to come about their city in the first place.

Roxanne. He wondered if she was still alive.

**/\\\**  
Roxanne could still hear the hungry growls and grunts from the creatures behind her. More tears rolled down her face, blurring her vision and irritating her eyes. She ran past dead bodies that lay on the sidewalk and inside cars. When she turned a corner she ran straight into someone and she screamed and smacked whoever it was.

In the midst of her hard hitting and fear clouded mind, she heard a familiar voice, "Roxanne! Roxanne, it's me! Stop hitting me!"

Roxanne opened her eyes and stared into Megamind's beautiful emerald green ones. He then looked up and pulled her behind him with great force and held up a hand gun. The shots that rang out were loud over the zombie's growling and snarling. Each bullet hit the zombies that were chasing her in the head. Roxanne watched in horror as one of the bullets hit the top left side of one of the zombie's skulls and a shower of blood exploded out.

With the zombies now lying slain, the street was quiet and Megamind lowered his gun and placed it in his pocket. He then turned to Roxanne who was shaking and gripped her shoulders.

"Are you alright? Are you hurt? Were you bit?" he asked urgently with a look of...was that concern?

"I-I fell on some glass and..." Roxanne's voice trailed off as she looked down at her bleeding arm and then back up into Megamind's face. Whatever he was going to do to treat her wound, she didn't know or care. She was just happy to see him and to be away from those things.

Roxanne let out a sob and wrapped her arms around him and began crying harder than she'd ever cried before into his shoulder. Megamind's eyes grew wide and he lifted up his hands, unsure of what to do with them. He just let her cry into him, her tears soaking his shirt.

"Sir! Are you alright? I heard gunshots and-" Minion said as he ran out of a store carrying a backpack. He then stopped and stared at the scene that was taking place in the street. "Where'd Miss. Ritchi come from?" he then asked.

**/\\\**

The picture I use for my cover is from AMC's The Walking Dead.


	2. Chapter 2

**Dead**

**Two**

**_Come gather 'round people wherever you roam. And admit that the waters around you have grown. And accept it that soon you'll be drenched to the bone. If your time to you is worth saving, then you better start swimming or you'll sink like a stone. Oh the times they are a-changin'._**

**_-The Times They Are A-Changin' by Bob Dylan (song)_**

Roxanne felt the cloth tie tightly around her forearm. She didn't dare look at the blue man that tied it though for she felt ashamed for crying into his shoulder just a few minutes before. Instead she stared off out the window of the store they were in.

"There," Megamind said as he sat back and eyed her arm to make sure it wasn't bleeding through and that it was tied properly.

"Thank you," Roxanne said as she stared at the floor. She hoped her eyes were no longer blood shot though she was sure they were.

Megamind stood up and looked at his fishy friend who stood to the side looking through the back pack he held.

"What did you find, filet Minion?" Megamind asked nonchalantly as he leaned on the counter. There was money that lay on the counter but Megamind did not take it despite his criminal record. What was the use of money now anyway?

"A whole bunch of ammo sir!" Minion said happily as he looked inside the backpack. "Also a few more hand guns."

"Really?" Megamind asked as he looked at his friend with surprise. "Wonderful!"

"Yeah!" Minion agreed as he zipped the bag back up. "I wonder why it's here neglected."

"Probably didn't have time to grab it or a zombie got them," Megamind answered.

Roxanne's brows furrowed and she looked up at the two aliens talking as though this was a normal day.

"Hold on," Roxanne said as she stood up. "Zombies?"

Megamind looked at her but Minion answered, "Well yes Miss Ritchi," he said pleasantly. "I don't see what else they could be."

"But-but…how…" Roxanne stumbled over her words, trying to figure out a proper response to this. Zombies? How was this even possible? Just then it hit her. "_You!_" she pointed at Megamind and he stared at her as though she'd gone crazy.

"Me?" he questioned, gesturing to himself.

Roxanne marched up to him and poked him hard in the chest. "Yes, you! What did you do?" she demanded angrily.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, completely lost.

"There's no other logical explanation other than _you_ being the one that turned everyone into zombies!" Roxanne shouted.

Megamind's expression became stony and Roxanne's angry expression fell only slightly. His emerald green eyes stared hard into hers as he said in a low and harsh voice, "I would never do something like this. I could never wish this kind of fate on _anybody_."

Roxanne's angry expression fell completely then, hearing the truth behind these words. "W-well then how else can-"

"I don't know how these people became zombies," Megamind answered harshly still. "All I know is that we need to keep away from them as much as possible and stay alive."

There was a moment of silence after these words as Roxanne let them sink in and Minion stared at them uncomfortably. It was at that moment that the situation was finally sinking in. The city had been taken over by zombies and who knew how many survivors there were. The only ones she knew of were herself and her two kidnappers.

Roxanne sighed then and put her hand to her forehead. Backing away, she turned and looked out the window at the ruined city.

**/\\\**

"Wardog. Come in Wardog," a voice said through the walkie talkie that was clipped on the Warden's belt loop. He rolled his eyes and said, "Hal, for the last time, my name isn't Wardog. Now what do you want?"

"I'm just wanting to know if you've had any sight of them yet," Hal asked from the other end.

"No, not yet," the warden said. "I'll let you know when I do see them though."

The conversation then ended and the warden put the binoculars back up to his eyes. There hadn't been any threat of zombies infiltrating their hideout, but whenever one came by, the warden was sure to take his crossbow and shoot them from his position on the roof.

He hoped that Megamind and Minion were alright out there. They had decided to not bring any walkie talkies in case the noise attracted any unwanted zombie attention. This meant that they wouldn't know how they were unless they showed up. The evening sun was setting though, indicating that they had been gone for quite a few hours.

The warden's white tank top was soaked with sweat from earlier; but the cooler evening felt nice on his once sweating skin.

Suddenly, he perked up as he looked through the binoculars. Through them, he could make out Megamind, Minion, and Roxanne.

"Roxanne?" the warden questioned to himself. Where had she come from?

The warden picked up his walkie talkie and spoke into it.

"Megamind and Minion are walking back to the hideout. And they have someone else with them," he said and then awaited an answer.

"Alright, thanks Wardog!"

The warden rolled his eyes and said sharply into the walkie talkie, "Don't call me Wardog!"

/\\\

Megamind peaked around through the alley between two large buildings. He then started jogging quietly into the alleyway and Roxanne hesitantly followed. Being in an alleyway while zombies were lurking about did not seem like the best idea to her.

Once inside the alleyway, the blue man looked up at a metal staircase that led up the side of the brick building. But there was no way to get up them.

This problem was quickly resolved as Megamind pulled down a ladder that had appeared to be a railing on the first step platform. He then stepped back and said, "I believe there's a phrase somewhere saying that ladies go first."

Roxanne began climbing the small ladder and stepped onto the metal platform and looked straight up at the stairs.

"Go to the top floor," Megamind called up as Minion went up the ladder after her, it creaking loudly under the weight of his suit.

Roxanne began climbing the stairs with her hand on the railing. She went up about one floor when she heard a loud creaking. Because she was still jittery from her zombie encounters from earlier, she looked down quickly and fearfully; but it was just Megamind pulling the ladder back up into a railing. Sighing with relief, she started climbing the stairs again, and she went up about six more stories before she reached the final step and platform. To her right was a door with peeling green paint.

Roxanne looked over at Minion who had just walked up beside her.

"Go ahead Miss. Ritchi," he said politely with a smile.

Roxanne grasped the doorknob and opened the green door. As soon as she stepped inside, someone called to her loudly and excitedly, "Roxie!"

Turning, she saw Hal jogging up to her. "Hal!" she exclaimed, rather surprised to see him. "What are you doing here?"

"What are _you_ doing here?" he asked. "I was sure you were zombie food!"

Roxanne winced at this and he then quickly said, "Which I'm glad you're _not_. I mean, where did you come from? Where have you been?"

"I-" she started but Minion interrupted.

"She was being chased by zombies," Minion said still a bit too cheerful. He then shuddered and said, "Dreadful things they are…"

"One of them that was chasing her was _teer_ablly ugly," Megamind said as he placed the backpack he'd been carrying on a table in the middle of the room.

"Great, you brought water I'm hoping?" a woman with short brown yet graying hair asked.

Roxanne turned around just as Megamind answered, "Yes we did. A whole two cases."

A blonde girl, looking to be about sixteen, then came up to them and asked, "How in the world did you manage to pack two cases of water bottles in that backpack?"

"Anyways! Didn't that weigh you down?" the greying woman asked as she took a bottle out of the plastic.

Roxanne stared at them. Was Megamind…conversing with citizens of Metro City? Were citizens of Metro City…conversing with him _back_? This had to be a dream. Had to.

As Roxanne took a step back and held her head, Hal looked at her with concern.

"Rox? You okay?" he asked as he reached toward her with worry.

This caused Minion and Megamind to turn to her as well as the other two women. The greying woman then said, "Oh dear." As she made her way over to Roxanne, another person – a male – appeared out of no where and placed a chair behind her to sit in.

The graying woman bent down at her level when Roxanne sat in the chair. She held a cloth in her hand and poured some of the water on it until it was dripping wet; she then put it on Roxanne's forehead and made her hold it there with her own hand.

"There, better?" she asked. "Poor dear's had a rough day."

"I'm pretty sure we've all had a rough day," someone said from the middle of the room.

He had brown hair and he wore a black tank top over some dark denim jeans. He wore black suede creepers on his feet that clunked slightly on the floor as he walked over beside Megamind and grabbed a bottle of water out of the case.

Roxanne looked up, still pressing the wet cloth to her forehead, and looked around. She then asked, "How many people are here?"

"Well, nine now that you're here," the greying woman said. "What's your name?"

"Roxanne Ritchi," she said and realization fell on the woman's face.

"Oh that's right! You're a reporter for channel-"

"Eight, yes," she replied as she thought to her job. If it had been any other day, she would have gone to work, most likely gotten kidnapped, and then been back home safe and sound watching television or typing up a report.

There were then more footsteps and Roxanne looked up to see the Warden and a young blonde boy that appeared to be only sixteen as well. He had a grey baseball cap on and a brown t-shirt. He looked at Roxanne with surprise but didn't voice because the Warden beat him to it.

"Roxanne," he said as he went over to her. "So nice to see that you're…" his voice trailed off and he instead said, "It's so nice to see you."

"Hey, wait," Hal spoke up. "Who's watching the streets?"

The Warden shoved the binoculars into Hal's chest so he was forced to grasp them.

"You are," he said.

Minion then spoke up with his usual cheeriness, "Maybe we should all introduce ourselves to Roxanne?"

"Why does it matter? Zombies are taking over the world and you still care about manners?" the young man with the brown hair said rather rudely.

The grey-haired woman shot a look at him and said, "I'm Regina. This is my niece Bridgette." She gestured to the young girl with the blonde hair. "That young man over there is Frank," she gestured to the guy with the brown hair. "And him over there is Mike."

Mike waved to Roxanne as Frank nodded at her. Most of them held friendly faces though they all had hints of sadness. But then again, why shouldn't they? Their city had been taken over by zombies and their family and friends were probably zombies or dead themselves.

Roxanne looked at all of them and couldn't help but wonder: Why was everyone acting so calm in a room with two criminals? Sure, Minion wasn't very threatening with his cheerful smile and perky personality; but Megamind was a well-known criminal that had been feared by the public for years.

And another thing she wondered, why was he even helping these people and not saving his own blue skin?

She vaguely heard Regina speak to Bridgette in a low voice, "Let's leave her be for a bit." Roxanne watched as Megamind grabbed a water bottle. He took a drink from it and didn't seem to notice her staring at him. He had specks of blood on his face and some on his arms and shirt and jeans. When he screwed the cap back on the water bottle, he leaned up off of the table and left the large room. He walked through an open doorway to a back room and out of her sight.

**/\\\**

I apologize for the lack of zombie action in this chapter. And in case anyone read my Everything Was So Perfect fic on my other account, Frank was one of my own characters in that. And yes, he was rather rude there too (: And in case anyone has noticed yet, Megamind is a bit out of character. Sorry if this disappoints anyone but I'm planning on making him more badass than usual in this story lol.

Also, I would like to thank the ones who have reviewed so far:

PreparedForZombies

pendyfreak86381

Ducklin

OhHowDelightfullyDreadful

BadIdeaGenius

Vast Difference,

Scribe fairy 101

Talani Silverwolf01

**Also,** if anyone here is really good at art and wants to make a cover for this story, I would greatly appreciate it! That is, if I really like the picture I'll make it the cover. I suck at art though so I can't make it lol.


	3. Chapter 3

**Dead**

**Three**

**_I am now, an instrument of violence. I am a vessel of invincibility. I cannot leave this undecided. Stepping down to battle another day. Remember me for all time this determination is a vital part of me. Surrender now or be counted with the endless masses that I will defeat._**

**_-Warrior by Disturbed (song)_**

After dinner, Roxanne walked out of the main room and back through the hallway that she'd seen Megamind go through. Even though there hadn't been much appetite, people ate anyway. Roxanne was basically forced to eat by Minion because she hadn't eaten anything all day. Megamind only came in for a brief moment to grab something and then head up to the roof. He had been unnaturally quiet and not like his usual goofy self that would always banter with her. Come to think of it, she hadn't really talked to him at all today.

Since she'd had a lot of time to think during the day, she'd also begun to feel guilty for the way she'd treated him. He saves her from a pack of zombies and what does she do? She falsely accuses him of turning Metro City into a zombie-infested war zone.

When she was in the back hallway, she saw a metal stair case heading straight up to the ceiling. There was a door there as well and Roxanne had a suspicion that this was where these certain "watches" had been taking place. She also had the suspicion that this was where a certain blue alien was.

Roxanne walked up the stairs and felt the cold metal on her bare feet. Once at the top, she opened the ceiling door and poked her head out. She didn't have to look for very long before she spotted a silhouette thirty feet in front of her. Crawling out, she gently closed the door so it made hardly any noise. Then, walking across the roof, she stopped right behind him.

He stood at the edge of the roof, peering out over the city with a cross bow at his side.

Roxanne took a breath and said, "Megam-"

The blue man jumped so high she thought he would drop the cross bow off the roof. He put a hand to his chest and turned to her with wide eyes.

"Roxanne!" he said, surprised. "Where did you come from?"

"I'm sorry!" she cried. "I didn't mean to startle you!"

"Well what did you expect, coming out of the shadows like some kind of _phean_tom," he accused.

Roxanne grinned. This Megamind seemed more familiar. He then turned back around and looked out at the city when he asked, "What are you doing up here?"

"I-I never thanked you for saving my life," she said as she fingered the cloth on her forearm.

"It's no problem," he answered.

There was a moment of silence as Roxanne stayed standing behind him, fingering the cloth on her arm. She then wondered why she was still standing up there; but she then looked back up at the blue man and asked, "Where did you find all those people?"

"What?" Megamind asked, looking at her.

"How did all of these people get in the same spot?" Roxanne asked.

Megamind hesitated and said, "Um-"

There was then a loud shout from down in the streets and Megamind whipped around as Roxanne ran over to the edge and looked out as well. There was the vague sound of the zombie's grunts, growls, and groans coming from somewhere; but there was the very distinct sound of a sane person needing help.

Before Roxanne could speak, Megamind took off toward the door and opened it. Roxanne followed him and got to the top of the stairs as he was already walking into the other room. Roxanne hurried down the steps and entered the room to see Megamind grabbing a handgun and large, black, steel knife from the weapons case by the door.

"What's going on?" Frank asked as he stood up.

"Someone needs help. Take watch," Megamind answered as he opened the door and tossed the binoculars to him.

"Woah, woah. Hold up," Frank spoke up and stepped forward as he handed the binoculars to Hal. "I want some zombie action too."

"Well come on then!" Megamind answered, frustrated.

Excitedly, Frank went to the trunk and dug out a hand gun. He followed Megamind out the door before Roxanne even had a chance to protest.

Megamind ran down the stairs, Frank following behind him. They didn't bother putting down the ladder, choosing instead to just leap over the railing. As soon as they landed on their feet, Frank stumbling a bit while Megamind landed stealthily, they ran out into the street with their guns aimed and at the ready.

The hungry snarls and growls of zombies was loud coming from around the corner a few blocks away; and the stench of the undead flesh was strong. Frank covered his nose for a short second and Megamind flinched, not at all used to the smell of the creatures yet. They took off running down the street though in pursuit of the cries for help.

What greeted them when the two men rounded the corner was a bus being taken over by zombies. They slapped their dirty hands on the windows and tried any attempts to reach the survivors that were inside. Megamind paused for a moment to look at the two survivors inside the bus, recognition lighting his face.

Megamind then held up his handgun and shot into the swarm of about fifty zombies that were engulfing the bus. This noise brought the attention of many of them and they started toward the two men. Shooting at each one, the bullets zipped through the air and landed inside their skulls with a shower of blood. One, however, missed the spot to kill and hit its jaw instead, exploding it clean off of it's face. The zombie was only dazed for a moment before continuing its pursuit toward the blue alien, its top teeth now the only things remaining at the end of its face. Some skin hung like bloody curtains where the bottom jaw used to be and its yellow and red eyes glared angrily and hungrily at the one who had shot him.

Megamind placed his gun back in his pocket to save ammo and whipped out the iron knife that he had grabbed before leaving the safe haven. He brought it down hard on top of the jawless zombie's head and it went deep into its skull with the squishing sound of blood, skin, and brain being punctured by the sharp object. Some blood splattered on Megamind's face but this didn't make him falter in his spree. Now with only about ten zombies around the bus, he charged through and sliced through their heads one by one. The final zombie at the door of the bus had almost managed to get it open when Megamind came up behind him and stuck the blade up deep into the skull under the occipital bone.

The zombies eyes rolled back in its head and it gave a final grunt. Megamind pulled the blade back out and some blood poured out of the stab wound like a faucet before the zombie dropped to the ground at his feet. Megamind forced the bus doors open then and climbed the stairs onto the bus. The two people stared at him with fear in their eyes. He wasn't sure whether it was aimed at him or the zombies, he hoped it was the latter but he was sure he looked quite a sight. With blood splattered all over his clothes and on his face and his knife dripping with it, he was sure he probably looked like a zombie himself.

Megamind swiped a hand across his face as some sweat dripped down it, causing the blood to smear and he raised his eyebrows at the familiar face he looked into.

One of the survivors at the very back of the bus was an unfamiliar face. He had glasses and untidy brown hair. His business jacket and pants were brown while the button up shirt underneath was blue. He stared at him with shock on his face. The other survivor had black hair and he wore a white robe that was starting to look pretty dirty. His expression was that of shock and surprise.

It was none other than Metroman himself.

"Who'd have thought that one day I'd be the one saving your ass?" Megamind said with a small smirk.

Walking off of the bus, Megamind, Metroman, and the brown-haired man were greeted by the view of Frank straddling a zombie and stabbing him in the face over and over again. The knife went into the zombie's forehead over and over again while Frank shouted, "Yeah! You like that? That feel good?"

The brown-haired man's face looked a tad green as he stared at the scene. He then looked up at them and his eyes widened to a comical degree.

"M-Metroman?" he stammered. After a few moments of thought e grinned widely and cried, "Alright! We saved a superhero!"

Metroman rubbed the back of his neck with sheepish embarrassment. The thought sat in Megamind's brain however: how in the world could _Metroman_ not fend off zombies?

**/\\\**

I didn't have time to proof-read because I was in such a hurry to upload this chapter before I left somewhere. So I apologize for any mistakes.

Thanks to my reviewers of Chapter 2!

Ducklin

Talani Silverwolf01

OhHowDelightfullyDreadful

Negative Other (an anonymous user)

SalemAnderson

PreparedForZombies


	4. Chapter 4

**Dead**

**Four**

**_I'll stop the whole world from turning into a monster and eating us alive. Don't you ever wonder how we survived? Well, now that you're gone the world is ours. I'm only human. I've got a skeleton in me. But I'm not the villain. Despite what you're always teaching._**

**_-Monster by Paramore (song)_**

Turning into the alleyway beside their safe building, Megamind pulled down the ladder out of the railing and Frank gestured for the brown-haired man, whom come to find out's name was Bernard, to climb up first. When he turned to gesture for the others to climb up, Megamind told him to go ahead before them. Shrugging, Frank started climbing up after Bernard who was still pretty shaky on his feet.

Metroman looked at Megamind with honest curiosity. "What's up little buddy?" he asked.

Pushing aside the 'little buddy' comment, Megamind asked seriously, "What was up with that?"

"What?" Metroman asked.

"You could have easily used your super strength or something to completely obliterate those zombies!" Megamind said, waving his hands around to prove his point like he so often did. "Why didn't you?"

Metroman stared at him for a moment and then down at the ground as though embarrassed to say. He then mumbled incoherently and Megamind squinted at him. "What?"

Metroman mumbled again and Megamind continued to stare at him until he said, "Okay, I can't understand a word you're saying."

"I've lost my powers, okay?" Metroman blurted out and Megamind stared at him with wide eyes.

Lost his powers? Metroman?

"But-but how?" Megamind asked. Normally, this would have thrilled him to pieces; but looking at recent events, his powers would be extremely useful. Why did they have to mysteriously disappear at this time?

"I don't know," Metroman said in a defeated manner as his shoulders slumped. "I just woke up this morning, was running late on my morning patrol so I tried getting dressed into my suit with my super speed and my powers were just…gone!"

"Well…well there has to be a logical explanation-" Megamind started but Metroman stopped him.

"Even if there was, what could we do about it now?" Metroman asked.

Megamind thought for a moment, his eyebrows furrowed. The thought came to him that perhaps they could go to his lair that he had abandoned; but this idea left him as he realized the reason he left it in the first place. It could be swarming with zombies since all you had to do was walk through a wall in order to get in. Perhaps it was a strange phase his body was going through and it would soon pass? Whatever the reason, the timing was horrible.

"Hey!" a voice came from above them. They looked up to see Frank looking down at them. "Are you guys coming or waiting for some zombies to come and eat your faces off?"

Metroman grimaced a bit at this question while Megamind gestured to the ladder for the hero to go up. The man climbed up the ladder, still wearing his white robe and slippers that had deffinetly seen better days. Megamind climbed up after and pulled the ladder back up into the railing.

Everyone's eyes widened as Metroman walked into the room. Minion tipped his head at the clothing of the superhero and Roxanne smirked a bit.

"Woah. You weren't kidding when you said you rescued Metroman," Hal breathed in awe.

"Well, _technically _Megamind went on the bus and got the two off," Frank said. "But you know, I helped."

Just then, Megamind walked in and shut the door behind him. Regina, Bridgette, and Roxanne gasped as they saw the state of him. With his hands covered in blood and his face smeared with it, he looked like he'd been battling in a warzone. Not to mention the blood that was splattered on his arms and clothes.

Minion hurried forward as Megamind cleaned the blood on the black steel knife off on his shirt. He then placed it back in the weapons trunk by the door. As soon as he straightened up, Minion was looking over him.

"Sir! Are you alright? Are you hurt? What happened?" he asked the questions frantically as he looked him over.

"What happened?" Frank asked as he scoffed, though, with approval. "He turned into the blue Rambo that's what happened."

Minion turned back around to look at his friend and Megamind rolled his eyes and said with slight aggravation, "I'm fine Minion!"

"Woah, woah, hold on a second," Hal said as he held up his hands. "_You _were the one in need of saving?" He said, pointing at Metroman. "And why are you wearing a robe?"

"Well, myself and Bernard here," he said as he clapped a hand on Bernard's shoulder. The brown-haired man nearly collapsed since he was still weak-kneed. "And I'm wearing a robe because...that's not important! What I should be doing is thanking our little blue warrior over here because I haven't yet and-" when he turned though, Megamind was gone.

No one had even noticed him leave the room. They all looked around the room for the bloodied man but couldn't find him anywhere.

/\\\

The next few days were filled with hope and lost hope. Everyone continued to try and find any radio station that didn't continue to repeat, "Do not panic. Stay safe in your homes." There was no sign of the mysterious zombie plague going away nor was there any sign that anyone was coming to help them. It was as though they were all alone.

No one went out on the street except for Megamind, Frank, and the Warden. Everyone took turns at watch on the roof however. Roxanne didn't mind taking watch because it gave her something to do. The only thing she really did mind about it was the heat and whenever she did see a zombie and either Frank, Megamind, or the Warden would kill it. In their opinion, the less zombies the better.

Everyone in their group knew what had happened to Metroman - how he'd lost his powers; and everyone couldn't agree more that it happened at the worst time. There was still no sign that he was getting them back in the slightest. This was another thing he in particular was losing hope about. Roxanne had seen him try and fly a few times as well as use his super speed, but both never worked.

Regina was one of the friendliest of their survival group as well as her niece Bridgette. Regina would always make tea or coffee and would bring water up to the people who were on watch. She was also particularly sweet on Megamind whenever she saw him. The reason for this was unknown to Roxanne. It wasn't a sweetness as though she had a crush on him, it was as though she treated him like a son or nephew. Whenever he came in from the streets and he had blood on him she would make sure he wasn't hurt or dehydrated. She was giving Minion a run for his money but the fish didn't seem to mind. He actually seemed to get a smile on his face whenever Regina got motherly toward Megamind.

Bridgette, Roxanne had seen crying a couple times. She, herself, had actually comforted her one of those times in which she learned that her mother was killed by the zombies. When she asked what had happened to her father, she simply said that she had never met him.

The warden was just the same as he always had been. Slightly grumpy while tough at the same time. He didn't keep as close a watch on Megamind as she would have expected him to.

Frank was seemingly a little too eager to kill zombies. Not only that, but he also could get slightly vulgar when explaining how he killed a zombie. Roxanne did not yet know of his past.

Minion was like Regina. He was definitely the most cheerful and polite out of them all though. He was always checking up on everyone, especially Megamind. Not only that, but he still hadn't dropped calling him "sir".

Hal flirted with Roxanne as always. This was a little more tame though. Recently she'd seen him lost in thought, just like most of the other survivors in the building.

Mike was a sweet kid. Whenever he saw her then he'd almost always seem to ask, "Ya alright?" He also seemed to have a crush on Regina; he was always complimenting her and making googly eyes at her as though he was simply looking at her while passing her in the hall at high school. He was such a strong kid for someone so young.

Bernard was a smart alic and spoke in dull mono-tones. He seemed to have recovered for the most part from his close-call with the zombies a few nights before. There was no longer a traumatized expression on his face. He had been able to replace his work jacket and blue shirt with a grey t-shirt. Though he still wore his brown pants, it was more fitting for the hot weather whenever he took watch.

Roxanne had finally been able to change out of her work dress and into a pair of jeans and a peach tank top. She wore a pair of light grey boots with black laces; the top of the boots folded over and the inside was a pink and black floral print. Frank had grabbed them and given them to her from one of the bottom floors when Megamind and him had gone to look for spare clothes for her, Bernard, and Metroman - who now wore a navy t-shirt, jeans, and camo boots. Frank had chosen the boots with the floral print for Roxanne because he figured she'd like them. Roxanne knew that this was because she was a girl and she mentally scoffed; but at the time she thanked him and put them on. In reality, she really did actually like them.

Everyone was required to at least have a pair of boots in the top floor with them just in case they had to evacuate and run. Megamind made this rule up, but he didn't tell anyone but Frank and the warden the reason. He didn't want the others to panic. Roxanne knew she wasn't meant to hear this, but she had overheard from around the corner a couple days ago. Though, she wasn't sure how zombies could get up on the top floor; she assumed it to be precautionary though.

Megamind was a huge curiosity to her. More so than he was before. Now, he didn't express much of his former silly and goofy self. Now, he seemed so serious and all-business. At least he was whenever she saw him. Roxanne had even found herself spying on him a few times.

One time in particular was when he was sitting at a desk in one of the rooms in front of a window. It was the fifth day in the safe building and it was night time. Roxanne walked by a room that was open a crack. She could see blue inside, indicating that Megamind was there. Letting her nosiness get the better of her, she peaked inside at the genius and watched him.

He seemed to be writing in a thick, brown leather notebook. Roxanne stayed peaking from around the corner as she watched him write quickly in the notebook. There were also times where he would make squiggly formations with his writing utensil as though he were sketching something. Roxanne furrowed her eyebrows as she watched him. She had no clue what he could be writing. Perhaps it was a diary? Roxanne had never thought of Megamind to be the diary type. What else could it be though?

Megamind dropped the pen on the open notebook and leaned back, rubbing his eyes. He then moved one hand to rub the back of his neck as he stared out the window at the night sky.

His emerald green eyes were reflecting in the desk lamp that was lit. He looked back down at the notebook for a few moments before reaching over and pulling the chain on the lamp to turn it off.

Megamind stood up out of the chair then and placed the notebook and writing utensils in the strappy black backpack beside the chair. Just as he started to turn around, Roxanne whipped away from the crack in the door and tried to appear as though she was just walking down the hallway.

The blue man came through the door and was about to walk down the hallway but saw Roxanne.

"Roxanne!" he said, startled. "What are you-"

"Nothing!" she answered rather quickly. He cocked an eyebrow at her and she said, "Um, I was just wondering if you wanted some hot tea is all. Regina is boiling some hot water to make some."

"Ohm, sure," he answered. "I'll probably take some up to the roof with me when I go on watch."

"Okay," Roxanne said with a small smile. "I'll tell Regina."

As Megamind walked down the hallway away from Roxanne, she eyed him until he went around the corner and out of her sight. There was something odd.

He wasn't carrying the backpack.

When Roxanne opened the bedroom door quietly, she looked inside. It was dark inside so she went over to the lamp and turned it on. She looked around again but couldn't see the backpack anywhere.

**/\\\**

Thanks to my reviewers for chapter 3:

PreparedForZombies

pendyfreak86381

Vast Difference

OhHowDelightfullyDreadful

Talani Silverwolf01

pickleball6

GeorgieGirl999

Ducklin


	5. Chapter 5

Sorry it took me so long to update! Thank you to everyone who's still following.

**Dead**

**Five**

**_Nothing's gonna harm you, not while I'm around. Nothing's gonna harm you, no sir, not while I'm around. Demons are prowling everywhere nowadays. I'll send 'em howling, I don't care._**

**_-Not While I'm Around (song) from Sweeney Todd (movie)_**

It had been two weeks in the safe haven. Two weeks where all of the inhabitants didn't have much to do. Then again, however, no one really wanted to go outside either. Not unless outside meant up on the roof where there were no zombies. The ones who didn't have to go out and get food were thankful that they hadn't had to see any zombies unless on watch, in which, they weren't up close.

Hal was shuffling around the kitchen at seven o'clock in the evening on the exact marking of their two-week period in the safe haven. Eventually, after about two minutes, he called out to the room, "We're out of food guys!"

Roxanne looked up from the journal she'd been writing in. Since there wasn't much to do, she had picked up the hobby of writing in a green notebook with a tree on the cover. Mike, Regina, and Bridgette all looked up as well from what they were doing, which was playing cards.

No one had a chance to say anything though as Megamind, Minion, and Frank walked into the room. They had all obviously been up on the roof, whoever's watch it was, no one was sure though.

"We're out of food?" Megamind asked and Hal nodded.

"Well, is anyone going to go out and get some?" Hal asked, obviously not requesting that he, himself, go out.

"No," Megamind answered. "It's going to be getting dark soon, who knows if anyone would make it back in time. Not to mention we've seen a lot of zombies around or building."

Regina and Bridgette tensed up a bit at this, obviously not liking the sound of the undead lurking around the outside of their safe haven. Mike stood up from their card game and said, "Well, we could go down to the lower levels and see if there's any food down there?"

No one had dared go down to any of the other levels. Though there had been no zombies coming up onto their level because of the locked doors, there still could be some there.

Megamind waggled his finger and said, "That's not a bad idea."

Mike grinned, appreciating the fact that his idea was complimented.

Roxanne stood up and placed her journal down on the wooden floor.

"Is there no food on the lower levels you've already been on?" she asked.

"No," Frank answered. "The levels farther down could have some though; but there's only one way to find out. So who's coming with Megs and I to search?"

The warden stepped forward with a raised hand and then over to the weapons trunk. Mike went over as well. Roxanne looked around and then asked, "Um…is there any chance at all that there are zombies down there?"

"Yeah," Megamind answered simply as he reloaded his hand gun and grabbed some extra bullets. "But there will less likely be a lot since they're higher levels."

Roxanne bit her lip and said, "I'll come."

Megamind paused and looked up at her, along with the other men.

"What?" Frank asked dumbly.

"I said I'll go with you," Roxanne said as she stood her ground, awaiting any of them to dare challenge her choice despite being a female.

Hal stuttered, "W-well, wait! If Roxanne is going then I'm going too!"

Roxanne looked at him as did the other's, clearly surprised that they were requesting to join them in their hunt for food.

"No," Frank then said. "You'll just be in the way. We'll just have to protect you and watch over you the whole time and-"

"I-I'll protect Roxanne, don't worry," Hal said, rolling his eyes and waving Frank's comment aside.

Roxanne shot him a weird look and then turned back to the others. "I can shoot a gun," she scoffed, crossing her arms stubbornly across her chest. "I've practiced with a-a…police boyfriend I had one time…"

There was a moment of silence in which the four males mentally debated on whether to let the two join them or not.

Frank then spoke up and said, "You know what, this might actually be a good idea. This way, Megs and I can go to one floor, Mike and Roxanne to another, Hal and Warden to another floor."

Megamind looked extremely uncertain. Roxanne frowned at him. Did he really think her so feminine that she couldn't take care of herself?

"I think I should stick with Roxanne," Megamind finally said. "Frank, would you go with Mike instead?"

Frank shrugged and the deal was made. After putting on her boots and grabbing a hand gun, Roxanne walked with the other men down the stairs to a lower level. They passed three floors that they had already searched on before, and the further down they went, the more nervous and frightened Roxanne became. Why did she agree to do this? She hadn't shot a gun in ages, who knew if she could ever kill a zombie? The fact, alone, that there could be zombies on the lower levels made her shake in her boots.

"Remember," Megamind said, lifting his finger to make his point more visible. "No first floor. The wall has a gaping hole in it so there's bound to be zombies in there..."

Roxanne wasn't listening as she stared down the stairwell all the way down to where the first floor was. She was expecting a zombie to pop out but it never did.

Once Hal and Warden had been dropped off at the fifth floor, and Frank and Mike at the fourth, Megamind and Roxanne walked down the stairwell to the third. Roxanne stood fearfully behind Megamind as he opened the heavy door and it creaked slightly. They both awaited a possible zombie but heard and saw nothing.

Roxanne, taking a breath after realizing she'd been holding it in, held the door open as Megamind crept through, his gun at the ready. The floor was full of book shelves and desks. It almost looked like a small library. The small chandelier hanging from the ceiling was off, there was hardly any light aside from the setting sun giving the room a type of yellow and pink hue.

Roxanne silently wondered again why she had volunteered to come. Part of her reasoning was that she was simply bored; but would she rather be bored or eaten by a zombie? Another reasoning was the feeling that she needed to help. The only ones who had been doing anything had been Megamind, Frank, Warden, Mike, and occasionally Minion.

After sensing Megamind's eyes on her, she looked at him, his gun still at the ready. He eyed her carefully and whispered, "Keep your gun at the ready."

Roxanne's eyes widened a bit and she looked down at her gun. She hadn't even realized that she'd had it clasped extremely tight in both hands and it was pressed against her chest. A bit embaressed, she put it at the ready, trying to imitate how Megamind was holding his while at the same time trying to remember how to shoot it.

As they started moving through the library, she thought to herself again, why oh why she had to volunteer.

...

Mike walked through the room that appeared to have been a lounge area. It also contained some book shelves as well as some glass containers that held busts on some marble pedestals. They stared at him as he walked by with their blank, hard eyes that lacked pupils. Their mouths were turned down in frowns.

He walked up to it to look at the small metal plate that said the name of the carved man. It was pretty dark in the large room they were in though, so he had to step closer and squint in order to read it.

Suddenly a hand clasped his shoulder and he whipped around, gun at the ready.

Frank stumbled back, his hands in the air.

Mike, breathing hard, slouched over with his hands on his knees. "I thought you were a zombie, man! Don't sneak up on me like that!"

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Frank said. He then brought his hands down and said, "C'mere. I found something."

Mike, an expression of curiosity on his face, followed the older man to the other side of the room to where Frank was to be searching.

Frank led him to another room that was seperated by a wooden door that was meant to be locked and closed. It was open though and Frank walked inside, Mike following.

The whole room was dark with only a few windows, and tables were scattered about the room. The only light in the room was-

"Vending machines!" Mike said with a grin on his face.

Frank nodded with a grin on his own face and triumphant laughter in his voice, "That's right. We hit the jack pot!"

Mike's smile then faded, "But wait...how are we supposed to get the food? We don't have any money."

Frank looked at him and said, "In a world over run by zombies, I don't think anyone's going to be marching around demanding that we put money in a snack machine."

"No, what I mean is, how are we supposed to get-" Mike was interrupted though by Frank attempting to move the snack machine. Mike went over to help and they successfully scooted it away from the wall so the back was facing them.

There was a large metal door on the back with a key lock on it. Frank then took a paperclip that he had grabbed from a desk out of his pocket and began twisting it out of shape. He then stuck it in the key lock and began twisting it around, Mike watching him with squinted and curious eyes the whole time.

Suddenly, there was a click and a quiet "Aha!" from Frank and he opened the back of the machine.

He then spread out his hands in front of him, gesturing to the open machine with the food free for them to take.

Mike nodded and said, "Impressive!"

...

The Warden walked through the room, concentrating on any small sound he heard. Though it was a little difficult when Hal was following so close behind him and pointing into every dark corner as though he had seen something.

When he did it again with yet another frightened squeal, the Warden rolled his eyes and said, "Oh for goodness sake! What is it now?!"

Hal then paused for a moment, fear gone from his face and a small grin broke out as he said, "Ohhh, wait...that's just a sweater laying on the floor. My bad!"

The Warden sighed and rolled his eyes again as he continued walking forward, gun at the ready.

"Hey! I said my bad!" Hal said, his hands up in a defensive position.

"Well you've had quite a few 'my bad' moments during the past few minutes," the Warden grumbled quietly.

"Well my bad I don't want a zombie to tackle me and eat my face!" he replied, pointing to his own face to emphasize his point.

The Warden looked back at him again and said, "Well you'll deffinetly be getting eaten if you don't keep your gun at the ready."

"Huh?" Hal asked lamely and the Warden stepped toward him and moved his gun in the correct position in which to hold it at the ready.

"There," he said. "Now if a zombie _does_ try and get you, you can-"

The Warden never had a chance to finish though as Hal gasped and stumbled backwards. The older man sighed in aggravation and asked, "What now?"

He simply thought that he was just seeing things out of his own nervousness again; but what the Warden didn't notice was the hand that had emerged out from underneath a pile of cardboard boxes.

Going up her arm were two violent bite marks that had torn the into the flesh so deeply that the teeth marks were clearly visible. Blood ran all the way down her arm onto her hand. Underneath each finger nail on that hand, dried blood was caked.

Hal could barely speak as the undead woman continued pulling herself out from underneath the boxes until her head was visible. Her long dark hair was in her face, but Hal could see one yellow and red eye staring at him hungrily.

When she opened her mouth to let out a gurgling growl, Hal screamed and shot at it. It hit the woman in the shoulder, making her jerk backwards and the Warden whipped around in the direction that Hal had shot at. It was then that he saw the zombie woman, regaining herself after being shot in the shoulder.

The bullet had left a bloody hole in the zombie's shoulder and she snarled again. The Warden held up his gun and shot it in the head. It hit the zombie right in the nose, causing the middle of its face to explode into a large bloody hole where the nose used to be. Its head fell limply to the ground.

...

Roxanne followed Megamind around the room, whipping her head around whenever she thought that she saw something. It was always her eyes playing tricks on her though.

There was a small shuffling that could be heard from somewhere in the room and Roxanne gasped and readied her gun even more, if possible. This time, Roxanne new her mind wasn't playing tricks on her because Megamind must have heard it too; he had stopped walking and was standing as still as a statue. His head was cocked slightly as though listening for another noise.

Roxanne felt as though her breathing was the only other noise in the room; she couldn't even hear Megamind's breathing. Her gun was clicking a little as her hands shook from fear.

Megamind then started walking forward ever so slowly and as quietly as possible, though his boots were clunking slightly on the wooden floor. Roxanne's were as well, no matter how quiet she tried to be.

Once Megamind had crept around the corner of the book aisle, he looked around. Roxanne waited with baited breath, wondering whether a zombie was going to jump out and grab him; but he looked at her and shrugged.

"What was that noise then?" Roxanne whispered, trying but failing to hide the fear in her voice.

"I'm not sure," Megamind answered. "Maybe it was just the building making noise. Let's still stay cautious though."

Roxanne smirked a little. "As though we haven't been this whole time?" she joked, trying to make herself feel better.

Megamind turned back to her and gave her a small smile, but it disappeared once a gunshot rang out from a couple floors above them. The two took off running immediately where they had entered the room.

But Roxanne never made it to the door.

Something tripped her and she fell to the floor with a thud but the sound was drowned out as more gunshots rang out. Megamind hadn't noticed that she fell and he ran right through the stairwell door.

Roxanne clambered to a sitting position and was about to stand up to run through the door as well when she saw what she had tripped on, and a gasp escaped her throat.

Staring right at her was a gruesome zombie with no lips, leaving its teeth bared. There was hardly any hair on its head and its eyes were just bright yellow with tiny pupils dotted right in the middle. Roxanne stood up clumsily and ran to where her gun lay on the floor a little ways away from her.

She aimed it at the undead creature, but paused before shooting. The zombie had only one leg. It crawled toward her leaving a slightly bloody trail in its wake, It gurgled and gasped at her as it opened and closed its mouth hungrily. Roxanne wasn't sure how long she'd stood there frozen, staring at it; but she was awoken from her state when the zombie grabbed her leg and she cried out.

A loud bang echoed through the room and the bullet went right into the top of the zombie's head. The top of its skull exploded in a shower of blood that sprayed all over Roxanne's jeans and speckled the floral on her boots. The grip on her leg became slack and she jerked her leg away quickly.

The zombie was now laying face down on the floor, blood pooling around its head and it was still.

Roxanne, still breathing deeply turned toward the door so she could go to a higher level where the others were but froze as she heard a familiar noise. Turning completely around to look behind her, Roxanne saw two zombie walking slowly toward her from across the room.

They all made eye contact and the two zombies dashed toward her. Roxanne let out a cry of panic and turned around and gripped the door handle. Running down the stairs she could hear other footsteps behind her, though they were to clumsy to be anyone from her group.

She ran down the stairs, thinking that running down them would be quicker than going up the stairs, even though that was where the others were. The zombies, being as clumsy as they are, tripped over their own feet and stumbled down the stairs past her in a jumble of grunts and groans. They landed in a heap below her and she took the time to shoot them both in the head; but one of the bullets missed and lodged itself in its chest instead. Roxanne didn't take the time to correct her mistake though as she continued running down the stairs.

Roxanne ran down to the first level and through the door. She slammed the door shut and leaned against it, breathing heavily.

With her hands on her knees, though still having a slacking hold on the gun in one hand, Roxanne tried to gather herself. She took one final heavy breath and was about to lift her head when there was a noise that made her heart beat fast in panic yet again.

Her eyes opened wide and her head shot up.

**…**

Megamind heard Roxanne's scream just as he saw that the Warden and Hal had been confronted by a zombie, though it was now dead. His eyes widened and he looked behind him. Roxanne was not there.

"Shit!" he shouted and the Warden and Hal looked at him with surprised expressions.

Frank and Mike were there too, having come rushing down to check and make sure everyone was alright.

"Was that…?" Frank asked but Hal cut him off

"Roxanne!" he shouted as he took off after Megamind who had already gone through the stairwell door and started down the stairs.

**…**

Roxanne stared out at the room she was in with an expression of horror.

Zombies. They were everywhere.

There was a gaping hole in the wall from where a bus had crashed into it, basically inviting them to come into the first floor of the building. And they had definitely taken up on the offer. There were probably a hundred zombies in the building, if not more.

Roxanne shot her gun at any zombie she could see, but since her aim wasn't perfect, many of them missed. A couple fell as they were hit in the head, but the others just got hit in places that made them merely faulter.

There was then the sound of gurgling beside her and she came face to face with a zombie that was lacking in a right arm. His teeth was bared at her and it was so close that Roxanne could smell its rotting, nasty breath.

Roxanne raised her gun to its face and shot it, causing its whole face to explode to something unrecognizable. Blood sprayed all over her face and clothes and he zombie fell to the ground, lifeless.

She turned around toward the whole crowd of zombies and she aimed her gun again but panic struck her even more, if possible, as she realized she was out of bullets.

Sinking against the wall, she stared out in horror as she awaited her doom. There was then the sound of loud footsteps from the stairwell beside her and her eyes widened more as she realized they weren't zombie footsteps.

The door opened with great force and a figure stepped right in front of her, guarding her. Megamind shot into the crowd of zombies, catching each one in the head. They edged closer, especially as some of them had started to run toward them.

Megamind gripped Roxanne's wrist and began running, her stumbling along behind him.

"Come on!" he shouted at her.

She managed enough strength through her fear-stricken mind to run fast enough to be beside him. Keeping a tight hold on her wrist, Megamind led her around a corner. They were cut off by two more zombies though and they skidded to a halt and took a sharp turn to the right. Even more unfortunate, there was another swarm of zombies awaiting them there as well. Megamind shot the two behind them quickly and then a few in the swarm beside them.

Megamind then noticed that beside him was bookshelf just a few heads taller than him.

"Climb up!" he shouted to Roxanne and she obeyed.

She stepped on his hands and he lifted her up. Roxanne climbed up on the top and then looked down to help Megamind up but to her horror, the zombies were closing in on him.

"Megamind!" she cried out.

He took out his gun and shot into the crowd, but it didn't make enough difference as the amount of zombies became overwhelming. Megamind seemed to notice this too as he started backing up, leaving Roxanne on top of the bookshelf.

"Wait!" she cried out, reaching out to him.

"I'll be back! Stay there!" he said to her and ran in the other direction, the zombies following in his wake.

Megamind ran back to where he had come from and was, of course, met by more zombies. He swerved around them though, missing their clawing hands and gnashing teeth.

He ran as fast as he could toward the bus that had crashed into the wall, shooting a few zombies in the head as he did. He ran up to the side of it and opened the latch to the fuel tank.

Then, as the zombies behind him were closing in, he unlocked the hatch so the small hole where the gas nozzle went in was exposed. Backing up quickly and shooting zombies in the head, he came to the outside of the building where there were none but one zombie awaiting him out there; though, the ones from the building were coming out after him.

Megamind lifted his gun and aimed at the small hole that was exposed on the side of the bus, hoping desperately that his aim didn't' fail him. Just as he was about to aim though, he heard more gun shots and looked to see that Frank, the Warden, Hal, and Mike were shooting at the zombies in the room.

"Run and duck!" Megamind shouted as loud as he could over to them.

The Warden and Hal looked up and saw Megamind out in the street.

"Wha-?" the Warden questioned.

"Run and duck!" Megamind shouted again.

The Warden then saw where Megamind's gun was aimed and his eyes grew wide as he saw the door and latch on the side of the bus was open, exposing the fuel tank.

"Come on!" the Warden shouted at them as she gestured them over to hide behind a large bookshelf.

Megamind closed one eye to make his aim even better. With his gun pointing at the small hole, he was vaguely paying attention to the zombies closing in in front of him. One was about to block his line of sight until he shot two bullets toward the bus.

The two bullets flew toward the bus and past zombies, who paid no mind to it.

Roxanne looked over as she heard footsteps where her and Megamind had been. She looked over from where she was on the bookcase and saw Mike, the Warden, Hal, and Frank had stopped running and ducked on the floor.

Hal had seen Roxanne though and he said, "Roxanne?"

The Warden grabbed his shoulder though and forced him down to the floor. "Get down!" he said sternly to him. He looked to where he had looked though and noticed Roxanne.

Before he had a chance to say anything though, a loud explosion was heard from across the room.

The bus exploded as the two bullets hit the fuel tank, catching zombies on fire as large waves of flames burst out at the room.


	6. Chapter 6

**Dead**

**Six**

**_Just a step from the edge. Just another day in the world we live. I need a hero to save me now. I need a hero, save me now. I need a hero to save my life. A hero will save me just in time._**

**Hero by Skillet (song)**

The explosion not only brought a booming sound so loud it felt as though they were going to be deafened, but it also brought a great wave of heat. It felt as though they were in an oven as they crouched.

Roxanne felt the wave of the explosion knock her clear off of the top of the bookshelf. She landed on the floor with a thud but still kept her hands over her ears and in a fetal position.

When the loud noise drained out, there was nothing but the sound of the crackling flames that had engulfed what was left of the bus. The Warden, Hal, Frank, and Mike looked emerged from their hiding spot and Roxanne removed her hands from her ears and opened her eyes.

"Roxanne!" Hal said fearfully and he lent a hand which she took. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," she said and then her eyes widened as she remembered. "Where's Megamind?"

"H-he's, uh…" Frank said pointing out to where the bus had exploded.

Roxanne took off running and went to where the bus was, along with an even bigger hole in the wall. She avoided stepping on the charred remains of the zombies that now lay on the floor. The smell that surrounded her was foul and she covered her nose for a moment but then forgot about it when she saw the blue man come around the corner leaning on the wall slightly, looking a little wobbly on his feet and rubbing his right ear as though it were sore.

His eyes widened and he looked startled as Roxanne dashed up to him and fiercly hugged him. What had gotten into her lately? This was the second time she'd hugged him in...three weeks? First two times she'd ever hugged him actually. It felt weird but...nice.

Megamind stood there awkwardly with his arms pinned down to his sides until she backed away and smacked him angrily.

"What were you _thinking_?!" she shouted at him.

Megamind backed away, confused by her sudden burst of anger. He'd saved her haden't he? So why was she getting so mad?

"What? I had to get rid of them somehow!" Megamind defended himself rather loudly, though there wasn't a hint of anger in his voice, just confusion.

"Well-well wasn't there some _other_ way of achieving that goal?!" she cried, her hands moving about wildly.

"I have a question," a voice said from behind them.

Megamind looked over Roxanne's shoulder as she turned around to see the others emerging from the building.

Frank continued, "But first I must say, kudos to you dear sir for raising your zombie kill rank _epicly._"

"Thank you!" Megamind shouted, still unable to hear correctly from the explosion.

"Now, for my question...what in the world were you thinking?!" Frank belted out at Roxanne.

She stumbled back a bit and then became defensive. "What are you talking about?"

"Why did you run down to the first floor when Megamind said specifically not to?!" he asked, outraged by her foolishness.

"I never heard him say that!" Roxanne tried defending herself.

Frank held out his arms and asked, "How could you not hear him say that?!"

"I don't know!" Roxanne said. "I guess I...wasn't paying attention?"

Frank scoffed and rubbed the back of his neck. His grin was full of disbelief and disgust. Roxanne turned around to see if anyone would defend her but the Warden, Hal, and Mike all stood there looking at the ground and shuffling their feet.

Roxanne turned to look back at Frank and he was glaring at her.

"You can't live in this world if you don't pay attention," he stated.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked in a dangerous tone.

"Exactly what I said," Frank told her, stepping forward a little. "There's no way you're going to surive in this world if you don't pay attention. Not to mention you can cause other people to die."

Roxanne said nothing but continued to glare at Frank. This was when Megamind chimed in, still rather loudly still. He stepped beside Roxanne and looked at Frank with a serious expression.

"That's enough Frank," he told him. "She didn't mean to. It was an accident."

"You could've died. We _all _could've died!"

"But we didn't," Megamind stated seriously still.

"Sure, we didn't die this time. What about next time though, huh?" Frank asked as he stepped toward the two.

"There won't be a next time," Roxanne said quietly, keeping her eyes on Frank's.

The man looked at her and then at Megamind, who continued to stare at him. Frank then looked back at Roxanne and pointed a finger at her. "There better not be."

Frank walked back toward the others as Roxanne looked at the ground as realization hit her of what could have really happened. Scenarios began playing in her head of herself and the others dying. Another came into her head of the others dying and leaving her alive to fend for herself.

Megamind looked at her and saw the expression on her face. He knew that she felt guilt. He lifted up his hand hesitantly, unsure of whether to touch her or not; but his hand just stayed up in the air. Just when he decided to not touch her and his fingers went limp, he remembered all the zombies that had been going toward her. They were wanted to rip her, tear her, eat her. Megamind's hand curled into a fist at the very thought.

Roxanne felt an arm wrap around her shoulders and she looked up at the blue man next to her.

"I-I'm sorry..." she said quietly.

Megamind's expression softened and he said, "No, no, it's alright."

Roxanne was surprised at his tone of voice. It was the softest she'd ever heard him speak before. It sounded especially strange because he'd been talking so seriously for the past three weeks.

There was the sound of a gun shot behind them and they whipped around to see the Warden had shot a zombie that had begun to crawl toward him. The thing was burnt badly, pieces of blackened skin had been left on the red trail that he'd left while dragging himself.

"The sucker was still alive," the Warden said matter-of-factly.

"Aside from that one though, it looks like all of them are dead," Mike said as he came back out of the building.

"They better be," Megamind said loudly. "I think I lost most of my hearing because of it."

There was a crackling noise that caused them to look around. They were unsure of where the noise was coming from until a big piece of wall crumbled to the ground from the fire. Frank pushed Mike out of the way of the flaming rubble and then looked up at where the hole had become even bigger. The flames were already catching the rest of the building on fire.

"Uh-oh," Hal said as he looked up at it.

"We have to get the others out!" the Warden shouted at them.

They all took off running back into the building, jumping over and maneuvering around the burnt bodies.

The time it took to get up to the top floor was enough a lot of the building to become even more engulfed in flames. Smoke had begun to fill the stairwell as they all opened the door to their level and ran inside.

Regina and Bridgette all looked up at them with expressions of relief. They were about to tell them of the building burning down until Metroman, Minion, and Bernard came into the room out of the ceiling door. They walked into the room and immediately began talking,

"What happened?" Metroman asked.

"Guys-" Megamind tried saying.

"I heard something go boom and bang and then gunshots and is everyone alright?" Minion asked quickly.

"Guys-" Megamind tried again but was interrupted.

"Why does it smell like smoke?" Bernard asked dully.

"Is everyone alright?" Regina asked.

"YO EVERYONE THE BUILDING IS BURNING DOWN!" Hal shouted loudly at them.

This shut them up immediately.

"What?" Bridgette asked.

"No time to explain," Megamind said rather loudly still. "We need to get out of here and-"

"Why are you yelling?" Minion asked curiously.

"That doesn't matter Minion!" he said even louder. "Look, we need to get out of here now! This building is burning down fast! So gather up any food you can get into backpacks and then meet back here as fast as you can!"

Everyone sprang into action and began collecting any necessities they could find. Frank and the Warden were packing up all of the weapons into two backpacks. Within two minutes, everyone was back in the room and they started down into the stairwell.

Everyone was wearing their boots as they made their way down the stairwell. By this time, it was filled with thick grey smoke. They held their arms over their mouths and noses as they made their way forward, coughing and choking.

Flames had already made their way around the wall. They were now close to the door. Hal went to open it but hissed in pain and pulled his hands back. The door was hot from the fire, but he kicked it open with his foot and let the others through.

When Bridgette made her way out into the room, she saw the burnt zombies everywhere and she let out a cry of fear and stumbled back.

Megamind stopped with his gun raised, looking back to see what had happened but let it drop as he made his way toward her. Mike followed along beside him, ready to help as well. Regina stopped and looked back at her niece with fear in her eyes.

"Bridgette!" she started forward but a loud crackling could be heard and the wall to their right crumbled down. The ceiling above Megamind, Mike, and Bridgette started shaking and crumbling and they looked up as they were crouched around the frightened girl.

Frank wrapped his arm around Regina's waist and pulled her backwards just as a large chunk of flaming debris fell right where she was standing. This piece of debris was followed by many more and they started blocking their path to get to the others.

Megamind stood up, leaving Mike crouched beside Bridgette as she sat in the fetal position. Megamind went to kick the large pieces of debris out of the way but leaped back as more fell. By now a tall flaming wall had formed in front of them and more pieces of ceiling started falling right on top of them.

"Keep going!" Megamind shouted through the fire. "We'll find another way out!"

They could hear Regina screaming her niece's name as more debris fell all around them. Mike looked up nervously at the ceiling and Megamind crouched in front of Bridgette.

"We have to get out of here Bridgette," he said rather gently for the situation they were in. "Come on."

"I can't!" she said, her eyes squeezed shut as if this was all just a nightmare and soon it would all go away.

It wasn't a nightmare though. That's what they had all been hoping it was for the past three weeks.

"Come on Bridge," Mike said in her ear. "If we don't get out now-"

"Those things are out there!" she cried out.

Megamind looked up at Mike and said, "Go find a way of getting out of here. I'll get Bridgette up and we'll join you."

Mike looked at Bridgette for a moment with concern and then looked back up at Megamind and nodded. He took off away from them toward where Megamind and Roxanne had escaped before.

Megamind placed his hand on Bridgette's shoulder and she squeezed her eyes shut even tighter.

"Bridgette, we need to get out of here," Megamind coaxed gently as yet more burning building fell around them. "If we don't get out now the building could come down on top of us."

"But those things are out there waiting for us!" she said, keeping her eyes shut tight. "I can't!"

"We won't let anything happen to you," Megamind tried again. "Honest."

Bridgette opened her eyes and looked up at him, tears starting to roll down her cheeks.

"Guys!" Mike's voice came from around the corner. "There's an open spot we can run through if we hurry! It doesn't look like this floor can take much more though!"

Bridgette looked back at Megamind and he held out his hand to help her up. She took it and he pulled her up with ease.

Mike watched as they ran around the corner toward him. He led them to a spot that wasn't yet totally engulfed in flames, but it didn't have too much time left. The book shelves were on fire and had tipped over, but there was a large enough opening for all three of them to make it through.

"It's now or never!" Mike shouted at them over the loud crackling of the flames and crumbling of the building around them.

Megamind pushed Bridgette gently toward Mike and shouted back, "You two go first! Hurry!"

Mike was about to urge Bridgette through the opening when a hand gripped Megamind's shoulder. He whipped around and reached for his gun and shot it dead, but then realized that more were emerging from a room that had not yet caught fire behind them. They must have gotten in there after they had gone upstairs to fetch the others.

Megamind started shooting at them and Bridgette screamed. Mike shoved Bridgette through the opening and she crawled through. Mike jumped beside Megamind and pulled out his own gun, but the space was getting too small as more flames flew up around them, eating up the wall hungrily. The four zombies left made their way toward them and one grabbed Megamind's arm that held the gun and he went to shoot him but realized he was out of bullets.

Dropping the gun, Megamind kicked the zombie in the stomach and it let out a grunt as it stumbled a bit. He then drew his knife and stabbed it through its forehead. The knife was coated with a fresh painting of blood as he pulled it out.

A scream then filled the air, but this time it wasn't Bridgette's. It was Mike's.

Megamind whipped around in time to see that the other three zombies had engulfed Mike. One held his head as another held his arm and bit deeply into it just as another bit into his side. Mike's scream filled the air again and Megamind dove forward in the entangled bodies.

As his knife dove deep into the back of one's head, another whipped around to face him. Mike's blood was coating its teeth and running down its bearded chin. Just as it opened its mouth at him, Megamind stabbed it in the forehead. The third was busy feasting on Mike's side as he continued screaming in pain.

Megamind pulled the zombie off and stabbed it too in the head. He then crouched down next to Mike and gulped at the state of him. He had a bite mark on his face and one on his arm. On his side you could start to see a rib, indicating just how much the zombie's bites had taken away.

Coming back to what was really happening, Megamind tried to keep his voice steady and reassurring as he said, "It'll be okay. Come on, let's get out of here."

"N-n-no..." Mike said as he winced in pain.

"No, stop it. Come on, you'll be okay. I'm going to get you out of here and we'll fix you up," Megamind said as he was going to start to help him up.

"N-no, you-you can't!" Mike said sternly as more blood leaked out of him onto the floor.

Megamind looked into the young boys eyes as he said, "I-it's t-too late for m-m-me now. Y-you need t-to get your-yourself out."

"I'm not leaving you here," Megamind said seriously.

Mike lifted up his hand and gripped Megamind's wrist with as much strength as he could muster.

"Th-there's n-nothing y-you can d-do," Mike said, his voice getting fainter and weaker. "Y-you c-can't s-stop m-me from t-turning."

Megamind, fully realizing what was happening now, gripped Mike's hand tightly. He hoped to give him at least a little comfort when he died.

As Mike's eyes closed a little more he said in a voice that was barely audible over the crackling of the flames and building, "T-t-thank... y-you f-for s-saving... me."

With that, Mike let out one last breath and the grip on Megamind's hand slackened. Megamind stared at Mike's pale face for a few moments, hardly able to take in that he had just died. How could he have let this happen?

Megamind placed Mike's hand down on the floor and stood up. He looked over to where the opening was creaking dangerously, about to collapse which would mean Megamind's last hope of escaping would be lost.

With one last look back at his dead companion, Megamind turned back to the flaming opening and crouched low.

Flat on the floor, Megamind started crawling his way through the opening. Above him, the wood creaked dangerously and a large piece of flaming wood fell on his back and his let out a loud hiss of pain as it burnt through his shirt and started eating away at his skin. He was about to push it off with his hand when he felt something grab onto his ankle.

Looking behind him assurred him of what was grabbing him.

Mike's eyes were red and yellow. His pupils small and glaring at him. Megamind kicked out at him but the strong grip didn't falter. Mike continued trying to bite his leg as Megamind continued trying to shake him off.

So this was how it was going to end? Stuck in a flaming hole with no gun, a zombie trying to eat his leg and a burning piece of debris on his back. Lovely.

"Sir!" a voice shouted from in front of him and he looked up to see Minion and the Warden running toward him.

"Hold on, kid!" the Warden shouted as he tried to pull him out but then realized what was holding him back. As he looked through the small opening he said, "Mike?"

Minion stepped up to the burning opening and bent down holding a hand gun.

A shot rang out and a bullet went straight into Mike's head, shutting up his hungry snarls. Megamind felt the grip on his ankle go slack and he pulled it free. He scrambled out from under the burning bookshelves just as they gave one last final groan and caved in.

The Warden looked at Minion with surprise at what he had just done. Minion must have realized it too because he looked down at the gun in his hand in horror and stuttered, "I-I-I'm sorry..."

The Warden took a deep breath and said, "It's alright Minion."

"He was a zombie. He wasn't the Mike we once knew," Megamind said as he started to get up off the floor but instead crouched down on one knee as he bit back a gasp of pain.

"Sir!" Minion cried as he rushed forward.

"Kid, what wrong?" the Warden asked but then saw the answer himself.

A large part of Megamind's back had been eaten away from the fallen rubble. Now what was left was an angry, deep red burn and loose skin hung around it.

"N-nothing," Megamind bit out. "Just got a little burned is all."

"A little burned?" the Warden asked, appalled at this comment. "Kid, this isn't a small burn!"

Minion looked at his best friend's back and let out a small scream.

Megamind smirked a bit and said with pained laughter in his voice, "That makes me feel loads better Minion."

Minion looked at his friend's face and said, "Oh, no! It's not that bad!" he failed to mask it in his voice and facial features though.

The Warden pulled Megamind up off the floor as the building started groaning even more dangerously around them.

The three ran out into the street as more ceiling rained down. They all ran out into the street and Minion made Megamind lean against the car as he reached into his backpack and pulled out medical equipment.

The others started running toward them as Megamind smirked and said, "Minion, I don't need mee-dical care."

Minion shushed him strictly as he started unrolling a white bandage from a roll.

"What happened? Is everyone alright?" Regina asked as the rest of them came up to them. She had her arm around Bridgette's shoulders, her eyes were red from crying. Regina's eyes then widened as she saw that Minion had taken out the medical equipment. "Are you hurt?"

"I'm fi-FUCK!" he shouted as Minion touched Megamind's burn with the bandage. He bit his knuckle and tried regaining his composure but couldn't mask the pain in his face and voice.

"Oh dear, can I help?" Regina started forward but Minion said that he had it covered.

"You can possibly help later, Reg," he reassurred her as she looked uncertain.

Roxanne looked at Megamind with concern and then realized that someone was missing. Bridgette spoke the question she was wondering, "Where's Mike?"

Megamind, the Warden, and Minion looked up at her. Megamind's face fell but he masked it with seriousness.

"Where's Mike?" Bridgette asked again as she stepped forward.

They all looked at the three that had last been in the building, awaiting an answer.

"I-I'm sorry..." the Warden said, sadness covering his features and voice. "He didn't make it."

Regina covered her mouth with her hand and Frank stared at them with no emotion. Hal dropped his head and Roxanne's eyes widened at the news. Bridgette's lip trembled and she stepped forward and cried, "What do you mean he didn't make it?! What happened?!"

"He was bit," Megamind said, not mentioning just how many times and the bad state he'd been in.

Bridgette let out a small sob and said, "I thought...why didn't you save him?"

"I tried," Megamind said, his eyes closed.

"You _tried_?" Bridgette shouted at him.

"Bridgette, please!" Regina scolded her niece.

"NO!" Bridgette shouted. "Mike's dead! How could you let Mike die?!"

"Hey!" Frank shouted at the young girl as he stepped in front of her. "How _dare you_."

Bridgette backed away, frightened at the tone in Frank's voice. "How dare you speak to him like that?! HE JUST SAVED YOUR LIFE!"

Bridgette's lip trembled and Frank shouted at her again, "HOW DARE YOU BE SO UNGRATEFUL!"

Regina put her hands on her sobbing niece's shoulders and went to tell Frank off but Megamind interrupted her.

"Frank," he said seriously. "Leave her be."

"But-!" Frank started but made eye contact with him and let out a growl of anger. He glared at the young girl and she looked away from him.

Minion was done wrapping up Megamind's back for the time being and packed away the medical supplies.

"Where do we go now?" Hal asked.

Everyone looked to Megamind except Bridgette as though he had all the answers.

"I think we should head out of the city," Megamind answered.

"Leave Metro City?" Regina asked. "Why?"

"This place is crawling with zombies, that's why," Frank answered.

"I was actually just thinking the same thing," the Warden spoke up. "But we need to hurry up and get out of here because it's nighttime. More difficult to see."

"So...what do we do, just walk?" Bernard asked from beside Metroman.

There was a moment of pondering until Megamind answered, "No. Let's find some vehicles, hot wire, and we can take those."

Everyone nodded in agreement and started off down the street. Megamind was handed a gun by Frank.

"Thanks," Megamind said as he took it in his hand. He started to walk but winced and stopped.

"Sir..."

"I can walk by myself, Minion," Megamind answered.

"No you can't," he answered in a motherly way.

Frank put his arm around Megamind's shoulders and began helping him walk down the street.

The group left the building burning and collapsing.

Inside, flames had engulfed everything. Mike still lay in a small spot where there was less flames, his yellow and red eyes staring up at the ceiling, his mouth agape. The flames were reflecting on his blood pooled on the floor and his glassy eyes.

Then, with one last final groan, the first three floors collapsed to the ground level. Following that was the rest of the building, burying Mike. By four o'clock in the morning, all that was left of their safe haven was a large scattered pile of burning rubble.

**...**

**Sorry to those of you who hate long updates! This turned out longer than I thought!**

**And thanks to my reviewers of last chapter:**

**Pumpkin Kuro**

**Pannanarae18**

**Vast Difference**

**Talani Silverwolf01**


	7. Chapter 7

I don't know if any of you know this, but I have a tumblr. If any of you wish to visit me or follow me, feel free! The URL to my page should be on my author's page, if it's not then you can message me. Anywho, enjoy this latest installment of Dead!

**Dead**

**Seven**

**_I don't need another friend when most of them I can barely keep up with. I'm perfectly able to hold my own hand, but I still can't kiss my own neck._**

**_Civilian by Wye Oak (song)_**

It wasn't until they got to the edge of the city that they found vehicles worth traveling in - a 1976 Barth 21 and a RAM 2500. The Barth was an old-time motor home. It was an off-white with orange and maroon stripes going all around. The RAM truck was black and looked to be brand new, much to Frank's excitement. He gazed at it with adoration.

After taking gas from some vehicles as well as filling up containers, they all settled in a vehicle and took off out of the city. Roxanne gazed out the window of the motor home as Metro City began to disappear in the early morning fog. It brought sadness to her, that she was leaving her home, possibly for good; but she had to keep reminding herself that that was no longer her home.

The Warden was driving the vehicle as Regina sat beside him in the passenger seat. Minion was filling the cabinets with food from two backpacks and Megamind sat at the table, staring out the window with a hardened expression. Bridgette sat in the bedroom in the back.

In the truck that was driving behind them was Frank, Metroman, Hal, and Bernard.

Roxanne looked at Megamind from across the motor home. He was staring out the window with his hands clenched in a fist on the table. The glow of the sunrise was reflecting off of his hard eyes.

He had changed in a cropped-arm black shirt that had a few buttons on the top. They were all three unbuttoned. Minion had wrapped new and more bandages around him after removing all of the fabric from his shirt that had smoldered onto his skin and after putting disinfectant on the burn. This was extremely painful, Roxanne could tell by the way Megamind let out small grunts of pain but tried covering it up with a swallow or cough. She could also tell by the way his teeth and fists were clenched tightly.

She had wanted to go over and comfort him, but she had a feeling he wouldn't accept it.

After driving in silence for an hour, Roxanne had nodded off and she awoke with a start as the motor home drove over a rather large bump.

"Sorry 'bout that!" the Warden called back to them.

Roxanne blinked the sleepiness out of her eyes and could see Minion sleeping on the seat next to her. His fishy body was laying against the side of his bowl. Regina must have fallen asleep as well because her head was resting against the window.

Looking across the room, she saw that Megamind was awake. If he'd slept at all, she didn't know.

"We're almost out of gas," the Warden spoke.

"What are we on?" Megamind asked, not taking his eyes away from the window.

"The gas light just came on," the Warden answered.

Megamind thought for a moment and then started making his way out of the booth. He visibly winced and had to stop once he stood up, but he regained his composure once he heard Roxanne start to stand up to help him. The two made eye contact and Megamind straightened up. He walked stiffly to the front and stood next to the Warden and looked out the front window.

Roxanne stayed standing and watched them as they discussed a plan of action.

"We should probably go to a woodsy area," the Warden said. "Don't you think?"

"A woodsy area that's also pretty open," Megamind agreed.

"So should I go here?" the Warden asked as he put the vehicle to a slow stop beside a wide trail that led into the woods. It was obviously meant for driving, which sent a red flag up in Megamind's head, but he nodded and the Warden drove onward slowly.

Roxanne watched out the window as they drove along the road that was a mix of dirt and sand. These beaches were no longer Metrocity beaches, they were more isolated and rural.

"It would be good to camp out at a waterfront spot," Megamind commented as he saw an open area up ahead.

"Why?" the Warden smirked. "So we can have a nice view?"

Megamind grinned a bit and said, "No. So the noise of the waves can drown out our voices a little."

"Got it," Warden said and continued toward the open area.

Once they got there, the motor home was parked on the grass a little ways away from the sand and the truck was parked right beside it. They didn't want the tide to wash up against it so they made sure to go off the sand.

There was a small cliff only five feet up from the water that was perfect for a fire ring. Hal and Frank gathered large rocks and made a circle while Roxanne, Warden, and Metroman went off to gather wood.

Megamind was helping Regina look through the motor home for some matches or fire-starters, even though she had almost begged him to just sit down and rest. It was an already lost battle though when he eventually started ignoring her.

"I _know _we have matches," Megamind said as he looked through a cabinet. "We had like ten boxes if not more."

Regina walked out of the bedroom, having failed to find any matches in there either. "I just don't understand how we can't find them anywhere!" She thought for a moment and then leaned out of the open door and called out to the others who were still at the camp, "Hey! Did anyone bother to grab the matches before we left the building?"

Hal, Frank, Minion, Bridgette, and Bernard all shook their heads and said "No."

"Don't tell me we don't have matches to start a fire," Bernard said in a dull mono-tone as he rolled his eyes in aggravation.

Frank and Minion narrowed their eyes at him. This guy loved to complain.

"I have a feeling no one grabbed them from the building," Regina said to Megamind as she went to the front of the vehicle and leaned down. Upon opening the glove box, she furrowed her eyebrows and reached inside.

"Great," Megamind said as he shut yet another cabinet door. "Now we have to start a fire the old _pie-oh-near _way!"

"Or not," Regina said and Megamind looked at her. She stood up and held up a box of cigars. "This whole glove box is full of them!"

Megamind furrowed his eyebrows and looked in at the stash.

"The person must have loved his smokes," Regina said with a smile in her voice.

...

After all the hours of driving, finding camp, and gathering the wood and stones, it was evening and the sun was lowering on the horizon.

The Warden had started a fire with a couple of cigarettes and now it was blazing hot. Out in the rural area they were in though, it felt a bit chilly so the fire was perfect. Frank and Megamind had rolled some fallen logs out of the woods to place on either side of the fire, much to Minion and Regina's scolding. They both still thought Megamind should be relaxing, but still he refused.

Bridgette, Regina, Hal, and Metroman had all gone fishing and caught a few. Now they were cooking over the fire and everyone was feeling a little more light-hearted. Perhaps it was the calming sound of the waves or perhaps it was because they were finally outside in the fresh air again. Either way, it was surprising that they didn't feel more exposed. Though, they hadn't seen one zombie since leaving the Metro City.

Roxanne sat around the fire with the others, joining in on conversations and letting out a laugh once in a while. She then looked around and realized that Megamind was no where to be seen. In fact, she hadn't seen him for quite a few hours.

"Where's Megamind?" she asked aloud to anyone.

Minion rolled his eyes, "He went off somewhere. _Still _not laying down nor sitting no matter how much I-"

"He's off on his own?" Regina asked, appalled.

"He can handle himself," Frank said.

"He must not be too far," Minion said as he stood up. "I'm going to go find him because I need to check his bandages."

"I'll go!" Roxanne said as she stood up.

Everyone stared at her and Minion asked, "Are-are you sure Miss. Ritchi?"

"Yepp!" she answered and then walked away toward the motor home.

Frank stood up and was going to follow her but she turned her head and said, "I can handle myself Frank!"

He sat back down and looked to the Warden for approval and he shrugged. Hal was about to call out to Roxanne but Frank said, "If I'm not going with her to protect her, you're not."

Roxanne walked into the motor home to grab a gun. She then grabbed a flash light and walked over to the edge of the woods and was about to shine the light into the trees when she saw a small bit of smoke snaking its way out of the trees by the water.

She narrowed her eyes at it and, after hesitating a moment, began her walk through the woods.

It took only about three minutes to get to where the blue man stood at the edge of the woods on a small cliff only about five feet up from the water. He was leaning against a tree and staring out at the sun setting low on the horizon; its orange, yellow, and pink glow dancing on the water.

Roxanne stood behind Megamind and watched as he lifted his hand to remove the thick cigar from his mouth and let out a long blow with which the gentle wind that rolled by carried away. He tapped off the ashes that were threatening to fall and, after placing it back in his mouth, he blinked and spoke around the cylinder, "Either there's a person behind me or a zombie."

Roxanne stepped forward and said, "It's just me."

She stepped up next to him and leaned against a tree as well and looked out at the ocean. Neither of them said anything for a moment.

"I didn't know you smoked," Roxanne commented, trying to start up a conversation because, for some odd reason, she yearned to talk to him.

"I tried it when I was young, Minion yelled at me. Tried it again when I was an adult, Minion yelled at me again. Then we both found out it doesn't affect my lungs quite as much as normal people's," Megamind answered simply. "One of the perks of being 'special'." He used his fingers as quotations and Roxanne smirked.

"Must be nice," she said jokingly and he scoffed. Roxanne then thought for a moment and then asked, "Mind if I try?"

Megamind looked at her, appalled and removed the cigar from his mouth. "Roxanne Ritchi! I thought you were a lady!"

"Who ever said ladies don't smoke?" Roxanne asked with a grin.

"No one. Just didn't think _you _did," Megamind answered, grinning at her as well.

"Well...I don't," Roxanne said. "Never tried it before actually. But I was thinking I might as well try it since I don't know how much longer-" she stopped talking and looked down at the ground.

She could feel Megamind's gaze on her for about thirty seconds before he said, "I'm going to keep you alive, Roxanne. You don't need to worry."

Roxanne looked up at Megamind just as he looked away from her and out at the ocean. "I already let Mike down. That won't happen again to any of you."

She looked at him and realized that she'd brought the serious side out of him again. At least she'd gotten to joke around with him for a little bit.

"So why are you back here anyway?" Megamind then asked.

Roxanne's eyes widened a bit and she said, "Oh! Um..." she racked her brain, trying to remember until she said, "Oh, Minion wants to check your bandages."

Megamind rolled his eyes and sighed as he stomped out his cigar on the ground. "Of course he does. I'm not interested."

Roxanne smiled and grabbed his arm, "Come _on_!"

She began dragging him out of the woods like a mother dragging along a stubborn child.

They walked along, Megamind complaining the entire way until Roxanne tripped on a tree root and stumbled forward, dragging Megamind along with her.

They let out sounds of surprise as they tumbled down a small hill. It only took a few seconds before they came to a stop and Megamind and Roxanne opened their eyes to see that they were laying on top of each other.

Roxanne looked down into Megamind's emerald green eyes as she felt her body seem to match perfectly with his as they touched. He looked up at her and they both didn't speak for a moment until an "ahem" broke them out of their trance.

They both looked up to see Minion and Frank grinning down at them.

"Are we interrupting something?" Minion asked.

Roxanne and Megamind's eyes widened and they stuttered, "N-no! Of course not!"

Roxanne got up clumsily, allowing Megamind to stand as they continued stuttering excuses.

"W-we fell and-"

"Rolled down a hill-"

"Darn stick scratched my leg-"

"Stupid root tripped me-"

Frank held out his hands and said, "Yeah, yeah whatever love birds. Let's get back to camp."

Megamind and Roxanne watched them walk away with mouths agape and they shouted, "We're not love birds!"

...

Late that night, Roxanne awoke from where she slept on the window seat in the motor home. She yawned and stood up to go to the fridge and get a water bottle. Opening it, she squinted against the bright light.

When she grabbed a bottle out of the fridge, she unscrewed the cap and took a couple drinks out of it before going back to where she had been laying. She was about to lay back down when she saw someone sitting out on the log by the dying fire.

Squinting a bit she could see Megamind, cigar in hand, facing out at the ocean with a gun in resting on the seat beside him. Smoke snaked its way from between his lips for a few seconds before he lifted up the cigar to suck in more.

Roxanne placed her hand on her hip and asked herself, "Doesn't he ever sleep?"

"Nope," the Warden answered as he walked inside to the fridge to grab a bottle of water. "That's how I know I can walk inside for a few seconds to get a drink. It's almost like the kid thinks he needs to stay awake while we sleep."

"Well...go tell him to get some sleep!" Roxanne said.

"Who am I to tell him what to do?" the Warden said. "I'm not his mom. Minion is."

With that, he walked out and climbed back onto the roof of the vehicle.

**...**

**...**

Thank you to my reviewers of chapter six:

GeorgieGirl999

Pannanarae18

Talani Silverwolf01

Negative Other (anonymous)

Also thank you to my new reviewers of earlier chapters:

Ofunu

Moth Mask


	8. Chapter 8

Look at my fast updating!

**Dead**

**Eight**

**If we were children I would bake you mud pie. Warm it brown beneath the sun. Never learned to climb a tree, but I would try, just to show you what I'd done. Oh, what I wouldn't do, if I had you babe.**

**_What I Wouldn't Do by A Fine Frenzy (song)_**

The loud singing of a mockingbird awoke Roxanne the next morning. She cracked open an eye and looked around as she continued laying on the window seat. It took a few moments for her to remember where she was. When she did remember though, she sat up and stretched.

Leaving the others snoozing inside the Barth, she opened the door and walked outside. The air smelt like morning and had the faint scent of the campfire from the night before.

She decided to not wear her shoes outside and went straight over to the fire pit. It wasn't until she was to the ring that she realized there was someone there.

Megamind was laying on the ground fast asleep with his gun held loosely in his hand. His eyebrows were furrowed seriously as though he were having an angering dream.

Roxanne walked forward quietly and bent down to touch the blue man's face. When she did, his eyes snapped open immediately and she stumbled backwards onto her butt on the grass.

"Roxanne? What are you doing?" he asked as he started to stand up.

"I-I'm sorry! I was just...uh-" she stopped talking immediately though as she heard a loud gasp of pain.

Megamind had his eyes closed though and his jaw clenched tightly as he continued sitting up.

"Are-are you alright?" Roxanne asked as she started forward but he held up a hand.

"I'm fine," he said as he sat up completely. Gingerly, he stood up, though Roxanne could tell he was using a lot of support from the tree trunk that lay on the ground. "I just need to get moving is all."

Megamind admitted only to himself that the burn hurt way worse than the day before. He could feel the reddened skin stretched painfully with each move he made.

"You know, maybe Minion and Reg are right. Maybe you _should _just sit around for a while and wait for your back to heal up," Roxanne said, starting to deffinetly see the light behind the fish and woman's reasoning.

"Nah," Megamind answered as he straightened up his shirt that was all out of wack from sleeping and from getting caught up on the thick bandages on his back. Since the front buttons of his shirt were unbuttoned, Roxanne could see the bandages on his chest that helped keep the ones on his back in place.

"Not even for today?" Roxanne tried again.

"Not even for today," Megamind answered.

Roxanne sighed and was going to say more but the sound of the truck door opening interrupted her.

Hal yawned as he clumsily and tiredly stepped out of the large RAM.

"Mornin' guys!" he called over to them, waving.

Roxanne waved as well and said, "Good morning, Hal! Sleep well?"

"Yeah, actually I did surprisingly," Hal answered as he came up to them. "I guess it was since I had the truck to myself since _SOMEBODY_ WOULDN'T LET ME GO ON WATCH LAST NIGHT!"

"Ah, shut up Hal!" Frank shouted back from the top of the Barth.

"Can you believe them?" Hal asked the two, who's eyebrows were raised. "Early this morning, it was someone else's turn to take watch. So the Warden woke up Frank from the truck bed and gave him the gun. So _I _said, 'Wait Wardog and Frank, how about _I _take this watch?' Since, you know, I'm a _good guy._ And you know what they said?"

"What?" Roxanne asked hesitantly.

"They said they'd feel better protected if a chicken was taking watch!" Hal told them, throwing his hands in the air. "A freaking _chicken_!"

A grin broke out on Megamind's face and he let out a laugh that was followed by chuckling.

Hal gaped at him and cried, "It's not funny!"

They could then hear Frank laughing from atop the Barth. Roxanne tried hiding her grin.

"I-I'm sorry, Hal," Megamind said trying to stifle his chuckles.

"It's-not-funny!" Hal cried again.

Megamind straightened up again and spoke, "You're absolutely right, it's not funny at all. You're completely trust-worthy."

They could hear Frank start laughing again at this and Hal glared in his direction.

"Honestly, Hal," Megamind said as he started walking away, Roxanne following. "I would trust you with my life."

"Really?" Hal asked.

"Really," Megamind answered; but he then looked back at Roxanne and shook his head while mouthing "no."

...

For the rest of the morning, Roxanne's thoughts were filled with Megamind's laughing. Of course, it was small laughing, but it was still a sweet sound that she loved hearing. In fact, it was actually the first time she'd ever heard him laugh genuinely.

It was not an evil laugh or a sarcastic laugh. It was real.

Roxanne was writing in her journal as she sat on the tree-trunk-seat by the fire pit. They had already eaten breakfast that consisted of granola bars and one fish caught from the morning, but they all managed to split it just so they could have at least a little protein to start the day.

There was a loud shout of pain from inside the Barth and everyone looked up from what they were doing.

"Sir! What have you been doing?!" they could then hear Minion's voice shriek from inside the vehicle.

Regina was about to take off toward the racket when Roxanne closed her journal and took off instead.

When Roxanne opened the door she rushed inside and asked, "What? What's going-" she froze where she stood though and her mouth fell open.

Minion turned around to look at her as Megamind said through gritted teeth, "It's nothing Roxanne. Go back outside."

"M-Megamind, this is not nothing!" she breathed out.

The blinds were pulled down so no one could see in so Roxanne figured that she should close the door. She did and then walked over to where Megamind stood leaning against a set of cabinets.

What should have been blue was an angry shade of red with yellow along the edges. The skin was raw and bleeding, and some of it was peeling off terribly. It was awful and all Roxanne wanted to do was help.

"You should have relaxed like Minion's been telling you!" Roxanne continued.

"Thank you!" Minion said, cotton swab and disinfectant in each hand.

Megamind growled out at him and Roxanne looked at him sternly.

"Please don't do anything today," Roxanne pleaded.

He looked up at her but didn't answer. He looked away for a moment and then back at her and grimaced. "Oh come on, don't do the pouty puppy dog look. Minion pulls that on me."

Roxanne continued with her pleading eyes and pouty lip and Megamind put a hand to his face and said, "Alright, alright! Fine."

Roxanne grinned as Megamind crossed his arms in a pout of his own.

"Don't worry," Roxanne grinned at him. "I'll give you something to do that'll still make you feel useful."

"Oh yeah?" he questioned, looking up at her. "And what's that?"

"You can teach me how to shoot a gun properly," she said just as Minion warned he was going to place more disinfectant on the burn.

"Teach you to wha-" he started to say just as Minion put more disinfectant on his back. He slammed his fist against the cabinet and Roxanne winced as she looked around at his bare back to see the sizzling liquid.

Roxanne was about to reach out and comfort him but he said through clenched teeth, "I'll meet you outside in about ten minutes."

**…**

Roxanne had just finished tying her boots on her feet when Megamind walked out of the Barth, straightening his shirt around his fresh bandages. He had his own gun tucked in his pocket along with the gun he handed to Roxanne.

As he handed it to her and she stood up, Hal watched them in curiosity.

"Ready?" Megamind asked.

"Ready!" she answered.

They started to walk out of camp when Hal called out to them, "Woah, woah, woah. Where are you two going?"

"Target practice," Megamind answered simply.

"Are you sure you're fit enough to-" Regina started.

"Yes," Megamind said, trying to keep his voice and face calm and polite, though he was very annoyed by her constant pestering.

"Then why did we hear you shouting from inside the RV?" Bridgette asked, eyeing him skeptically.

"I uh, stubbed my toe," Megamind answered rubbed the back of his neck. "Look, we should be back before dark. Actually, probably by evening."

"You kids have fun," the Warden said jokingly from where he leaned against a tree in the shade. He was eyeing them suspiciously with an eyebrow raised.

It wasn't until a few moments passed that he noticed Metroman seemed to be doing the same thing.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" he asked the Warden as he stepped up beside him.

"No," Hal said, appearing beside them randomly with an aggravated expression. "Roxanne and Megamind do not have a thing for each other."

"I don't know!" Metroman said in a sing-song way.

"They don't," Hal snapped. "Trust me."

**…**

The two traipsed through the woods talking as though one had never been the villain and one had never been the kidnappee. They both came upon a beach that thankfully held no zombies.

There were empty plastic water bottles, one placed on top of four different posts of wood that stuck out of the sand. They appeared to have once been a fence, but it was now long forgotten and ragged.

Roxanne held the gun in front of her and Megamind watched from beside her. She shot and the bullet went into the wooden post. She had been at it for an hour now and still couldn't get the hang of it.

"I'm still shooting too low!" she said in aggravation.

"What do you mean still?" Megamind asked, his hands in his pockets. "First you were shooting too high, then too off to the side, at least you're changing it up a bit."

Roxanne narrowed her eyes at him and he held up his hands in a surrendering way. "Kidding!" he said, grinning innocently. "Just, try again and remember to not get distracted from your mark."

Roxanne nodded and held up the gun again. She took a deep breath and then pulled the trigger. The bullet collided straight into the center of the water bottle.

"I did it!" Roxanne shouted excitedly like a child as she jumped up and down.

Megamind smiled at her and watched her. "Great job," he complimented. "Soon maybe you can hit the cap on top."

For two more hours, they practiced shooting at different objects as well as using a knife.

...

Thanks to my reviewrs of chapter 7:

Pumpkin Kuro

Vast Difference

Talani Silverwolf01

Pannanarae18

And thanks to my new review for chapter 6:

Pumpkin Kuro


	9. Chapter 9

**Dead**

**Nine**

_**So many stories of where I've been. And now I got to where I am. But these stories don't mean anything when you've got no one to tell them to.**_

**The Story by Brandi Carlile**

Over the next few days, Roxanne continued practicing with Megamind at the same spot on the beach. And still, no one at the camp had seen even one zombie.

It was almost as if they were simply taking a vacation in which no one dared disturb them. No one was complaining though. It was nice to have this down time.

It had been four days at their camp and Roxanne and Megamind sat on the beach. The strange part about this though wasn't just that they were spending all of this time together, but that Roxanne had only shot three bullets that day.

For hours, they simply talked.

...

That evening, the two had been back at camp for a couple of hours. Regina and the Warden were trying to start a fire.

Metroman was watching the fishing pole that was lodged in the sand, waiting for a bite when Megamind walked past on his way to the motor home. Metroman's head snapped up and he stood up immediately and nudged Bernard at the fishing pole so he could watch it. He grumbled quietly but obeyed.

"Hey, little buddy!" Metroman called to him.

Megamind turned and looked at him strangely. The two had hardly talked at all since Megamind had rescued him that day. "Yes?"

"I need to talk to you," Metroman said in a hushed tone.

Megamind stared at him and asked, "About?"

"Something important," Metroman answered.

"Which would be?"

"Something I would rather keep a secret!" Metroman answered, starting to get aggravated.

Megamind stared for a moment before asking, "A secret about?"

"Oh, would you just come on!" Metroman snapped quietly as he gripped his wrist and led him into the woods.

"What?" Megamind asked, brushing off the grip on his arm with aggravation.

"I still don't have my powers," Metroman told him.

Megamind gave him a strange look and said, "Okay? Well...have you tried again since-"

"I haven't tried for like four days," Metroman answered.

"What? Why?" Megamind asked, surprised by this statement seeing as he had been trying to get his powers back since being rescued.

"I don't...I just...I'm not..." Metroman sighed and then blurted out, "I-don't-want-my-powers-anymore."

Megamind's eyes widened, not expecting that at all. "You don't want-wait...what?"

Metroman sighed again and walked off a bit until his back was facing the blue man. There was a moment of silence before he began his reasoning.

"Since I lost my powers...I've felt more like a normal person than I ever have before. I mean, for as long as I can remember, I've had these super powers. And for as long as I can remember, people have expected me to be this...hero and this super fantastic man and I...I've never really thought about what I truly wanted to be."

Megamind stared at him, completely appalled by this new information. For as long as Megamind had known him, which was a long, long, long time, Metroman had always seemed rather cocky and extremely pleased with his powers and role as Metro City's hero.

Metroman continued, "I just don't want to feel as though I'm being depended on all the time. I'm done with the whole hero thing. I don't want anything to do with it anymore."

...

It was past midnight and everyone was in bed except for the Warden, who sat on the top of the motor home as watch. Roxanne lay awake listening to the night sounds from inside the vehicle. For some odd reason, she wasn't tired. She had already written in her journal once today, but since she couldn't sleep and had nothing else to do, she sat up and reached for her journal only to pause and stare out the window.

Roxanne put on her boots and stepped outside the motor home. She walked over to the sand where Megamind sat staring out at the dark ocean. The moonlight reflected on the wavy surface.

She sat down on the sand with him and he looked at her and asked, "What are you still doing up?"

"I was going to ask you the same thing," she said.

"Because," he answered simply and Roxanne rolled her eyes.

"That's a wonderful reason," she said.

He grinned at her and answered, "It is."

"You know, you should probably get more rest because-"

"Oh Roxanne, _please _don't turn into another Minion and Regina," he groaned.

"I'm not! I'm just saying..." she insisted.

They sat in silence for a few moments before Roxanne broke it. "So what were you and Metroman talking about earlier?"

Megamind looked at her, surprised by this question. "How did you-"

"I saw him drag you into the woods," Roxanne answered. "You two never talk so I had to notice during the one time you did. So, what were you two talking about?"

"Just...stuff," Megamind answered and Roxanne quirked an eyebrow at him and he caved rather easily. "Eh, he was just telling me how he doesn't want his powers back and such and such."

"_What_?" Roxanne asked, appalled by this.

"That's what I said!" Megamind agreed.

"But-but why?"

"He says he doesn't want to be the hero anymore," Megamind rolled his eyes and Roxanne's mouth fell open. "I know right? I don't know where the heck this came from but it couldn't have come at a worse time."

Roxanne thought over this new information. It didn't seem possible that Metroman would ever dislike his powers. But then again...she never thought zombies were possible either.

Roxanne sighed and looked back out at the ocean, "I guess I can kind of feel for him... sort of."

Megamind quirked an eyebrow curiously and asked, "How so?"

Roxanne smirked a bit and said, "While this is the closest Metroman's ever felt to being normal, I've begun to forget how it feels to actually _be _normal."

There was a moment before Megamind responded with a smirk, "I've never known what it feels like to be normal. So I suppose I can't miss it too much."

Roxanne looked at Megamind, who was staring out at the ocean. She thought for a moment and then got on her knees and faced him, "Want to go to our little beach?"

Megamind blinked and looked at her, surprised by this random invite.

The Warden watched the two run off into the night through the woods, giggling like teenagers sneaking out past curfew. He quirked an eyebrow up at them and grunted in curiosity and suspicion.

...

Thanks to my reviewers of chapter 8!

Pannanarae18

Pumpkin Kuro

Talani Silverwolf01

P.F. Zombies


	10. Chapter 10

Sorry it's taken me a bit to update, been busy with school and such. But guess what? This story be in the double digit chapters now! Woo!

ENJOY.

**Dead**

**Ten**

**_This night is sparkling. Don't you let it go. I'm wonderstruck; blushing all the way home. I'll spend forever wondering if you knew I was enchanted to meet you._**

**Enchanted by Taylor Swift (song)**

The waves lapped up against the shore toward Megamind and Roxanne's feet as they sat on the sand, but it never reached them. The moonlight danced on the surface, and the stars twinkled brightly in the sky. They reflected on Roxanne's blue eyes as she stared up at them. She knew she had a goofy smile on her face as she gazed up at them, but she couldn't help it. Roxanne had always loved looking up at the stars. There were times when she would take a drive outside of Metro City just so she could see them clearly.

Megamind looked out at the ocean until Roxanne looked at him and rolled her eyes.

"Will you just lay on the sand already?"

Megamind looked at her. "What?"

"Lay down on the sand already!" she demanded.

"I'm just being-"

"Be paranoid about zombies as you lay on the sand then," Roxanne said with a smirk and he cocked an eyebrow at her. She patted the sand playfully and he looked down uncertainly and then eased awkwardly into a laying position on the sand.

He looked around as he lay there and twiddled his thumbs. "So…what are we doing?"

"Star gazing," Roxanne answered.

"Oh," Megamind answered and there was a moment of silence before he said, "I didn't know it had a name."

"What? What did you think it was called?" Roxanne asked, looking at him.

Megamind shrugged, "I don't know."

"Wait, so…you've actually star-gazed before?" Roxanne asked, surprised.

"I suppose, if staring up at the stars is called star-gazing," Megamind answered. "Why?"

"You just didn't seem like the star-gazing type," she answered simply.

Megamind shrugged and asked, "What type do I seem then?"

Roxanne thought for a moment and said, "I don't know…I mean, you seemed like the goofy-villainous-type before. Now I don't know." This answer hung around to sink in before Roxanne asked, "What type do I seem like?"

Megamind made a pondering noise before saying, "The smart-shool girl-type."

Roxanne laughed. "Are you serious? I'm not even a school girl…anymore."

"Oh, so you were?" Megamind smirked.

Roxanne rolled her eyes and said, "Yeah. I went to a school where I had to wear uniforms in my high school years. I wore this checkered skirt and polo."

When she heard Megamind snickering beside her she said, "It's not funny!"

"It sounds cute," Megamind smirked.

Roxanne's face fell as she heard this and she blushed. "C-cute?"

Megamind's face fell as he blushed and he stuttered, "Uh…w-well…yeah, I guess. Maybe."

Roxanne's smile returned at his embarrassment. She then asked, "What about you?"

Megamind got a little tense and asked, "What about me what?"

"What about you and your high school? What was it like?" Roxanne asked.

Megamind stayed silent for a moment before saying, "Uh…I don't know. I barely went to high shool."

"Really?" Roxanne asked. "Why?"

"I was just…uh…never much in favor of it," Megamind answered uncomfortably.

"Why?"

"Wow, is that the time?" Megamind said in an appalled way, looking at his wrist despite the fact that he wasn't even wearing a watch. "It's getting late, I've got to go!"

Just as he started to stand up though, Roxanne grabbed his arm and he looked back at her. She was staring at him with a slightly amused expression. "Okay, I know you don't have anywhere you need to be."

"How do you know?" Megamind asked in a smart-alic way. "I could have an appointment."

"I know you don't have an appointment. You want to know how I know? Because we're living in a zombie-infested world," Roxanne said with a smirk. "Now tell me what your school was like. Or…at least any school you went to for a long period of time."

Megamind looked hesitant still before Roxanne pulled him back down to the sand and he obeyed silently. After laying back down on the sand, he twiddled his thumbs again before he felt Roxanne's eyes on him.

Megamind sighed and said, "Alright fine…in shool, none of the other kids really liked me. I was always the last one picked for everything."

There was silence as Roxanne let these saddening words sink in. She clasped his hand comfortingly though and his eyes widened and he looked away from he stars and back at her.

"Well, it's too bad that we didn't go to the same school," Roxanne said with a smile.

**…**

The next morning, Megamind sat on the ground beside the fire pit. He was leaning against the seat with his knees up slightly and his chin resting on his hand. Minion came up beside him holding bandages.

"Sir."

Megamind continued staring out seemingly into space. A small smile on his face and his eyes glazed over.

"Sir."

Megamind still didn't answer and Minion looked at him curiously then at Frank who was also staring at the blue man. Frank's eyebrow was cocked up as he also stared at him curiously.

"Megs?" he asked and then looked at Minion when he didn't get a response either and shrugged.

"Sir!" Minion shouted and this seemed to snap him out of it.

Megamind looked up at him, his grin still on his face and his eyes still glazed over.

"Hm?" he asked. At the strange looks that Minion, Frank, and now the Warden and Metroman were giving him, his goofy expression fell. He coughed a bit and said, "What?"

"What-what were you staring at?" Minion asked.

"N-no one. Nothing," Megamind stuttered quickly.

"Well…okay. It's time to change your bandages," Minion said, holding up the roll of bandages to prove his point.

After Megamind and Minion walked off to the RV, the Warden looked over to where Megamind had been staring and saw Roxanne on the sand. There was no one else over there except for her. Metroman came up beside him and crossed his arms.

"I think something's going on here!" Metroman said in a sing-song voice out of the corner of his mouth.

**…**

Over the next few nights, the two continued going to their little beach at night. They would share stories and things that they had never known about each other.

This night in particular, the stars were twinkling extra bright in the night sky. The two walked through the woods toward their beach when they noticed the lightening bugs blinking all around them. They were like miniature strobe lights putting on a show.

Roxanne let go of Megamind's hand and reached up to catch one in her own. When she did, she watched it crawl up to the tip of her index finger and blink a few times before flying off.

"Oh, it's been _ages_ since I've caught lightening bugs," Roxanne said happily.

"Why do you catch them?" Megamind asked curiously.

"What do you mean why?" Roxanne asked.

"What's the point?"

"Have you never caught lightening bugs before?" Roxanne asked, appalled.

"Uh…no?" he answered, confused as to why this was strange.

"I can't believe this!" she said and walked forward and grabbed his hands. "Here, cup your hands…" as she did this for him, she brought them up to a lightening bug that was flying aimlessly around. It went straight into his hand and its wings lowered and it settled in the palm of his hand contently.

Megamind stared at it as it blinked its lights. It then crawled to the top of his index finger, blinked once and flew off up toward the night sky, blinking its lights at them as though saying goodbye.

Megamind watched it fly upward, his hands still out in front of him and he said, "Huh."

Roxanne giggled and took his hand again. They continued walking toward the beach, hand in hand.

**…**

I know, some of you may be saying, "Where's the zombie action?!"

Well don't worry. There will be some soon. Just be patient.


	11. Chapter 11

**Dead**

**Eleven**

**_"All the harm that e'er I've done, alas it was to none but me; and all I've done for want of wit, to memory now I can't recall. So fill to me the parting glass. Good night and joy be with you all."_**

**The Parting Glass by The Wailin' Jennys (song)**

The Warden sat on top of the Barth at his usual post that night, gun resting on his knee as he waited for any sign of the undead. He had watched as Roxanne and Megamind went off into the woods again. He wasn't sure whether they knew about their new little hangout sessions, but it appeared that they were quite different around each other than when Roxanne was rescued.

The crunching of a leaf in the woods ahead knocked the Warden out of his thoughts. With his attention now on the woods, he tried to hear for any other sounds as well as peer into the trees.

There were more noises that sounded like something moving along in the woods. The Warden straightened up and tensed his hold on the gun. While it could be just an animal, the possibility of it being a zombie was too great to ignore. When the sounds stopped, the Warden squinted and stood up slowly.

Once on the ground rather than the Barth, the Warden held his gun cocked and ready as he edged closer to the woods. The Warden could not hear a thing, causing him to wonder if it was just an animal; but the sound soon appeared again along with a figure moving into his line of sight and coming toward him. The Warden lifted his gun and backed up a bit, waiting for it to come out of the woods to be sure it was a zombie.

Sure enough, it was. The thing was very gangly with its ribs showing underneath its grey-like skin and only wisps of hair remaining on its head. Instead of firing the gun, the Warden backed up to where an ax was propped up against the Barth, grasped it and brought it up and down into the top of the zombie's head. There was a sickening crunch and crack as it embedded itself into the skull.

As soon as it fell to the ground, the Warden pulled the axe out and stared with wide eyes at what had just taken place.

Where had this zombie come from? Were there others?

Looking around cautiously, the Warden held his ax at the ready just in case another came out of the woods.

**…**

Roxanne picked up a small seashell, tossed it confidently in the air once and then tossed it out into the ocean where a ragged wooden pillar stood. When the sea shell went into the water, a small wave washed over, disguising the plopping sound that would have come about if the water was still.

"Is that all you got?" Megamind asked with a smirk as he stood beside her.

Roxanne gaped at him and said, "Are you kidding me? It went like an inch past the pillar!"

"I wouldn't say that you would qualify for the Olympics with that," Megamind answered.

Roxanne raised her eyebrows, "You mean if there was a section in the Olympics for rock-throwing?"

"There should be," Megamind shrugged.

Roxanne laughed and said, "Yeah…right. Let's see you throw one then if you have such a great throwing arm."

"Alright," he bent down and picked up a sea shell, reared back his arm and threw it into the ocean.

The seashell went about an inch past where Roxanne's had fallen in and Roxanne scoffed and picked up another seashell. When she threw it, the shell went a little further then the one before it.

"Oh, so it's a competition now?" Megamind asked and Roxanne put her hands on her hips and smirked playfully at him. "Alright, fine!" Megamind picked up a shell and went to throw it into the water until Roxanne brought her hand out and blocked it, causing it to fall back into the sand.

"Hey! Cheater, cheater…um…chicken eater?"

Roxanne laughed at this. "It's _pumpkin _eater!"

"Well that doesn't make any sense…who would eat a pumpkin?" Megamind said, honestly confused.

"Pumpkin pie, duh," Roxanne answered matter-of-factly.

"Well then why wouldn't one say pumpkin _pie_ eater?"

Roxanne smirked, rolled her eyes, and sat down on the sand. Megamind followed suit and soon they were both looking out at the ocean.

"So…are we just going to stay here forever until this whole thing blows over?"

Megamind didn't answer right away. Instead he ran a few answers through his mind as to what would be best for her to hear.

"I guess," Megamind answered. That was the best he could come up with because, in all honesty, he wasn't sure what they were going to do. For almost two weeks, they hadn't seen even one zombie. So therefore, the place they were camped out at seemed a pretty promising home; it was the only home they could come close to having in these crazy days.

If Roxanne was going to say anything else, he did not know because there was a rustling in the woods behind them. Both of their heads whipped around and Megamind stood up quickly as they heard it again. Roxanne had a look of concern on her face as she said, "Megamind? What is it?"

"I don't know. Could be an animal or someone from our camp."

"Or a zombie?" Roxanne asked and there was a moment of silence until the sound was heard again.

"I'll go check it out. I'll be right back," Megamind said and went into the woods with his knife out and at the ready.

Roxanne watched as the blue man disappeared into the dark woods. She stayed sitting on the sand for a couple more minutes. She still faced the woods to be on the cautioned side. It was when she heard the noise again that she stood up and rubbed her hands on her jeans to get the sand off.

There was the sound again, but closer. Roxanne laughed nervously and said out loud, "Megamind, is that you? If you're going to try and scare me, you better expect to get shot!"

There was no reply. When Roxanne the noise continued, she did not go closer to check it out but instead stayed frozen on the sand in fear.

In the next instant, she saw it. The zombie was limping quickly out of the woods straight toward her, snarling and growling hungrily.

Roxanne brought up her gun to shoot but then changed her mind. Instead, she turned around, grabbed a large, thick piece of branch off the ground and swung it with all her might. The wood hit the side of the zombie's head with a thunk and it fell to the ground. Though the wood had put a decent sized hole in the side of its head, Roxanne lifted it up above her head and brought it down onto its face. Blood splattered all over the sand and a couple teeth could be seen flying off to the side.

Roxanne was breathing hard as she stared at what she had done. A small amount of blood had jumped up onto her face and she wiped it off with the back of her hand.

"Roxanne!" Megamind came running out of the woods with such an urgency that it alarmed her.

"What?" she asked.

"Listen to me, alright?" Megamind said in a low and urgent voice as he grabbed her shoulders. "I want you to run back to camp-"

"What? Why? What's happening?"

"Just listen, alright?" he said rather calmly, but the calmness mixed with urgency unnerved her. "I need you to run back to camp and warn the others that I just saw a couple of zombies in the woods."

Roxanne's eyes widened at this, but she nodded.

Megamind turned and was about to run off into the woods again when Roxanne grabbed his arm, "Wait! Where are you going?"

"Back into the woods to get them," Megamind answered. "We don't want them finding our camp and attacking anyone; and also, there could be more."

"But-" Roxanne was going to complain but he started backing away.

"Don't worry! I won't be gone long," he assured her. He then gestured to the bleeding zombie on the ground and said, "Nice job by the way."

Roxanne smiled and he smile back before disappearing into the woods again.

**…**

Megamind walked through the woods with his knife at the ready, prepared for any attack. Every rustle he heard would catch his attention immediately. So far though, ten minutes into his search, he hadn't seen either of the two zombies from before.

Suddenly there was another noise that caught his attention, but this noise was different. It sounded like whispering and Megamind stopped walking to see if he could hear it anymore. He didn't, causing him to believe it was just his mind playing tricks on him.

The sound distracted him for a moment until he heard rustling from in front of him. He looked ahead just in time to see a small figure dart go behind a tree.

Megamind squinted at the spot and inched forward quietly. He paused for a moment right in front of the tree, and he was about to walk around on the other side when a battle cry rang out in the air and a remotely large rock was thrown right into his stomach.

Megamind coughed as the air was knocked out of him and he held his stomach.

"Charlie!" a small voice said. "He's not a walker!"

"I thought he was!"

"Does he _look_ like a walker?"

"No… but I can't see all that well!"

Megamind stood up straighter and looked in front of him at the two younger boys that looked to be around ages nine or ten. They backed away from him in fear as they caught sight of the knife and gun attached to him.

"I-I'm sorry Mister!" the one that Megamind assumed was Charlie said. "I-I didn't mean to! I thought you was a walker!"

"A walker?" Megamind asked, confused about this term.

"Y-yeah," the other little boy said. "You know, the dead people."

"Right, well no I'm not," Megamind shook his head and looked down at the large rock that had plowed into his stomach.

"Sorry, it was too heavy so I couldn't throw it any higher," Charlie said, as though Megamind wouldn't felt more comfortable with it hitting any higher on his body.

Megamind ignored this comment and asked, "What are you doing out here in the middle of the woods?"

"Oh, we have others! Come on!" the other little boy said as he waved his hand for Megamind to follow.

Rather hesitantly and curiously, he did. They had only walked for about a minute when they came upon a small area surrounded by trees in which two other little girls were. One was sitting up with her knees up to her chin and the other was laying on the ground, apparently sleeping.

"This is Alexa, that's Amelia, and I'm Billy," the little boy said. "And as you already know, that's Charlie. The one that hit you with a rock."

Megamind didn't answer for a moment as he looked around at all the little kids. Finally he asked, "Where are your parents?"

"We don't know," Charlie answered sadly. "We got separated from them during a raid on our camp yesterday and we haven't been able to find them since."

Megamind looked over at where the two little girls were and Alexa stared at him with wide eyes as though frightened of him. The other little girl still lay on the ground, unmoving.

"Do you know where our parents are?" Alexa asked quietly.

Megamind hesitated before answering, "No I don't, I-I'm sorry."

Alexa's expression fell even more if possible and she just stared at the ground and let out a small whimper.

Megamind felt strange, being around all of these children. He hadn't really been around children since he was a child himself. He wasn't sure what to do. Was he supposed to bring them with him? Or…what?

"Have you checked on Amelia at all?" Charlie asked Alexa.

This brought Megamind's attention and he watched as the little boy went over to the small girl on the ground. He felt Megamind's gaze and he said, "Amelia hasn't been doing too well since earlier today. The zombie bit her pretty deep, but my daddy should be able to stitch it up when-"

"She was bit?!" Megamind asked in a panicked voice. He rushed over and pulled the little boy away from the girl.

"Wha-what are you doing?" Charlie asked.

"Look, you can't be around her right now alright?"

"Why not?" Charlie asked.

"She's-" Megamind stopped and thought of a decent way to put it. There wasn't one that came to mind so he just said, "Look, I'm going to bring you all to my camp tonight. There are others there, we have food and water."

"Food!" Billy said excitedly and even Alexa's face lit up.

Charlie looked a little nervous and said, "My parents always say to never go with strangers."

"Oh come on Billy! If there's food there I don't care who the heck he is!" Charlie exclaimed.

"Well…okay," he said rather uncertainly. "But what about Amelia?"

Megamind looked over at the little girl with nervously. He stood up then and went over to her and placed two fingers against her neck, but in such a way that the children behind him couldn't see what he was doing.

There was no pulse.

Megamind blinked and closed his eyes for a moment in silent mourning before standing up and turning back to the group of children.

"I'll come back for her," Megamind said. "The zombies-"

"Walkers," Charlie interrupted. "Walkers make them sound less scary."

"Alright then, walkers. The walkers won't get her, trust me."

"How do you know?" Billy asked.

"I uh-I put a formula on her that prevents zom-walkers from getting near her for at least an hour," Megamind lied.

The three children believed it though, and they started on their way to camp. When they arrived, almost the whole camp was awake and outside.

"Megamind! Where have you been? Did you find-" the Warden asked as he walked toward him, but stopped short when he saw the other three that were with him. "-children? Megamind what-"

"I found them in the woods by themselves," Megamind answered.

"No parents?" Bridgette asked with concern.

Megamind shook his head. "They separated during a walker raid on their camp yesterday."

"Walker?" Hal asked.

Megamind opened his mouth to explain but Billy interrupted, "Can we have some food?"

"Oh, of course!" Bridgette answered with a welcoming smile. "Come along, you three must be starving!"

The Warden and Megamind then went off to the side.

"Did you find the zombies?" the Warden asked.

Megamind sighed and answered, "No. I got distracted by the four kids."

"Four? But, you only brought three with you to camp."

Megamind opened his mouth to explain but Frank walked into their conversation and said, "Hey man, when did this turn into a babysitting job? Won't these kids just get in the way?"

"Oh have a heart Frank," the Warden said with aggravation. "The kids didn't have any adult supervision with them, they were alone in the woods, what would you have done?"

Frank didn't answer for a moment but instead said, "Whatever. I'm just saying, I ain't no babysitter."

"I'm pretty sure the kids can last without your love and support," Megamind answered jokingly and Frank scoffed before walking away.

The Warden then turned back to Megamind and said, "So what about this fourth kid?"

**…**

It was still very dark in the woods as the Warden and Megamind walked.

Arriving at where the children's camp was, they stopped and looked around. There was no one in sight. The Warden was about to say something when they heard a small rustling from in front of them.

The two stepped forward past the camp and saw a small figure step out from behind a tree. She wore a light pink t-shirt with shorts. She only had one sandle on and her skin was pale. The blood from the bite was on her shoulder. Her eyes were a foggy grey and they were locked on them.

The little girl started walking forward clumsily, making small growling and grunting noises. Her small hands hung at her sides and swung slightly as she walked.

Megamind stepped forward past the Warden and took out his gun and aimed it. Clicking it back, Megamind watched as his gun was aimed at the little girl's head. His gun was aimed at this little girl's head, this little girl who was a daughter, a granddaughter. A girl that used to go to elementary school, play with her friends, go on the playground, play with dolls. This little girl once had dreams like any other little kid.

The child let out a louder, hungry growl at him and his hand shook a bit as he continued aiming his gun, but not shooting. The little girl got closer and closer and was only two feet away when Megamind closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He opened his eyes again and pulled the trigger.

The bang echoed around them loudly and the bullet shot straight into the little girl's forehead. Small splatters of blood went into her light blonde hair. Her eyes closed as the top part of her head exploded slightly. She fell onto her back and moved no more.

Megamind let his arm fall down to his side.


	12. Chapter 12

Hello! New chapter! Yay!

**Dead**

**Twelve**

**_"You don't know me and you don't even care. You don't know me and you don't wear my chains."_**

**Boston by Augustana (song)**

Megamind and Warden placed the logs on the fire so the fish that Regina and Bridgette caught could be cooked. They had just gotten back from their small trip and everyone appeared to be outside except for Bernard and Roxanne.

"Sir! I still think you need rest! Where are you coming back from? Why-" Megamind ignored him and continued walking past only to be halted by another voice.

"Where have you been?" Bridgette asked as she looked up along with Alexa, whom Bridgette was braiding her hair.

Megamind ignored the question and picked up a water bottle out of the cooler and asked, "Where's Roxanne?"

"In the Barth," Bridgette answered, turning back to her braiding. She then got a curious and suspicious expression on her face and looked back up at Megamind. "Why?"

Megamind, who had unscrewed the cap off the bottle, took a drink and made an "I don't know" noise before walking away. Bridgette smiled, raised her eyebrows and shook her head before getting back to her braiding.

Walking inside the Barth, Megamind was greeted by silence. Bernard was asleep on one of the window seats, snoring slightly. Walking quietly past the sleeping man, he went to the back of the vehicle and opened the bedroom door to see Roxanne sleeping on her side. As quietly as he could, Megamind bent down and reached under the bed. He pulled out a thick leather bound journal and then slipped out of the room.

As Megamind walked out of the Barth and across camp he began going back toward the woods, ignoring Minion's call to him of, "Oh sir, where are you going _now_?"

Once sure that he was far enough away from camp so no one would disturb him, he sat on the ground against a tree and released the strap that kept the book closed. He then took out a pencil from his pocket and began sketching and writing.

**…**

After an hour-long nap, Roxanne walked out of the Barth to smell the scent of cooking fish. It smelt wonderful considering that she was starving.

"Is the fish almost ready yet?" she asked as she leaned down to look at it being cooked over the fire.

"Almost. It's a good thing because it looks like it's going to rain," Metroman answered, looking up at the sky for a moment.

Roxanne looked around and said, "Where's Megamind?"

"Uh…I don't know. He went into the woods a little bit ago and hasn't come back for a while," Metroman answered simply.

"What?!" Roxanne asked, appalled by his calmness of the fact that Megamind had been gone for a while.

"Roxanne, relax! He can take care of himself!" Metroman said. "I honestly think he could last on his own and we're just a burden," he then joked.

Roxanne didn't crack a smile however. Instead, she went over and grabbed a large hunting knife from beside the fire that had been used to skin the fish, and started walking off toward the woods.

"Woah, woah there Roxanne," Frank said, grabbing her arm to stop her. "No need to kill him. He needs his space once in a while you know?"

"I'm not going to kill _him _Frank!" Roxanne said. "I'm bringing this to slash any zombies that may cross my path!"

Charlie, Alexa, and Billy whimpered a bit at the word "zombie" while Frank, Hal, and Metroman appeared appalled at her violent words.

"Roxanne, when did you become such a killer?" Hal joked.

"Since Megamind has been training me to be so," Roxanne answered in a no-nonsense tone. She then shrugged off Frank's grip on her arm and continued on her way.

"Wait, wait," Hal said, moving forward to grab Roxanne's arm to stop her again. "What do you mean Megamind has been training you?"

"Just what I said. He's been training me to kill zombies," Roxanne said, shrugging off Hal's grip and continuing on her way yet again.

She didn't get very far though. Hal grabbed her shoulders and spun her around so she was facing him. Roxanne let out a frustrated sigh.

"_What _Hal?" she demanded.

"Roxanne! I don't like that he's been training you to…to _kill _things," Hal said.

Roxanne rolled her eyes and said, "Hal, he's trained me to kill zombies not people."

"Zombies _are _people Roxanne."

"Actually," a dull voice said, signaling that Bernard had left the Barth and entered the conversation. "-zombies _were _people. They aren't anymore."

"Whatever!" Hal responded with aggravation as he threw his hands in the air. "The point I'm trying to make is that he shouldn't be trying to make you into some blood thirsty killer!"

"He isn't, Hal!" Roxanne fought back.

"Yes he is!"

"No he's not! He's training me to kill zombies! What could possibly make you think that he's trying to make me into a-"

"Because that's what _he_ is Roxanne!"

The camp went silent aside from a distant roll of thunder that sounded. Roxanne's expression fell in surprise at this new comment that had just left Hal's mouth.

"What?" Roxanne asked rather breathlessly.

"Roxanne, Megamind is the bad guy. He's brutal."

"What are you-?"

"Haven't you seen the way he kills zombies without remorse? The way he can spill their blood with a straight face?"

"So?" Roxanne scoffed. "Just because he can handle the gore better than you can doesn't mean that he's a cold-blooded killer!"

"He's turning you into a violent person Roxanne," Hal argued.

Everyone was either watching with mixed expressions or keeping their eyes on the ground yet still listening.

"How _dare_ you! I am _not_ a violent person! Megamind is simply training me so that I can defend myself and this whole group, while _you _on the other hand remain a pussy!"

Hal's mouth fell open at this. He didn't have a chance to reply before someone could be heard walking through the woods.

Everyone turned their heads to see Megamind walking into camp carrying half a case of water bottles.

"Megamind, where did you-" Warden started to ask, pointing at the water bottles. He was interrupted by Megamind handing the water bottle case to Hal, who barely caught it in his hands with an 'oomph!'

"Hey, there's blood on this case," Hal said as he looked at it.

Megamind turned around and wiped the blood off of the case with his wrist.

"There. I wiped it off without remorse," he spat at him.

Hal's expression fell at the tone of voice that was directed at him. The Warden raised his eyebrows and looked at the ground as Frank rubbed the back of his neck. Minion watched his friend walk away from the group with a saddened expression. His expression then turned angry as he glared over at Hal.

Roxanne watched Megamind disappear into the trees where she had found him smoking a cigar on their first night at camp. She blinked as she realized what had just taken place and what he had just heard said about him. Just as she started to follow him though, an angry voice stopped her.

"_How dare you_."

Just as Hal turned around to face the voice, he was pushed against a tree trunk by a great force, the case of water bottles falling from his arms. Minion's metal hand was at his neck, though not squeezing it too tight so he wouldn't be able to breathe, though it was enough to frighten him.

Hal let out a cry of fear at the threatening gesture.

"How dare you say those mean things about him! How dare you speak about him in such a way after all he's done for you and this whole group! You're nothing but a- but a…I can't think of an insulting name right now because I don't insult people often but if I could, ohhh boy would you be in trouble!"

"Minion! Minion!" Metroman said as he placed a hand on his shoulder. "I think he's learned his lesson."

Minion looked at the man who now had a scruffy beard on his face rather than the smooth skin.

"Put him down Minion," Metroman said calmly.

Minion let go and Hal fell to the ground and breathed deeply. Metroman gave the fish a smile and squeezed his shoulder in comfort before breaking away and saying to the group with a large smile, "So how's about some breakfast, huh?"

Everyone began agreeing with this to try and break the silence even more.

"It's great that we have these new water bottles! We were running out," Regina said.

"I know, I wonder where he got them though…" Warden said.

The group began gathering around the fire except for Hal, Roxanne, and Metroman.

When Roxanne began heading over to where Megamind had disappeared to, Metroman clasped her shoulder and said, "It's probably best if he's alone for a little bit."

Roxanne debated for a split second about arguing and decided that Metroman was probably right. That didn't stop her from giving one last look over in that direction though.

When she looked over there for the second time once she was sitting around the fire, she could barely see small bits of cigar smoke swirling about away from the trees over the ocean.

…

**I know I haven't said this for the past couple of chapters, so I'm saying it now!**

**Thanks to my reviewers of Chapters 10-11:**

**Birusa**

**PrettyKitty126**

**Pumpkin Kuro**

**Negative Other (anonymous)**

**Pannanarae18**

**Watcher of the Hearts**

**Talani Silverwolf01**

**SalemAnderson**

**GeorgieGirl999**

**Vast Difference**


	13. Chapter 13

**Dead**

**Thirteen**

**_ "You're here, there's nothing to fear; and I know that my heart will go on. We'll stay forever this way. You are safe in my heart and my heart will go on and on."_**

**My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion (song)**

The rain poured hard on the roof of the Barth. It had been raining all day long, it was now in the evening and everyone was catching up on sleep that they had missed; everyone except for Roxanne and Megamind that is.

Roxanne lay awake on the window seat and listened to the rain and steady breathing of all of the people in the Barth with her. Charlie, Billy, and Alexa were in the back room, Bernard and Minion were on the opposite window seat, and Warden was asleep in the driver's seat. Bridgette was sharing the window seat with Roxanne. Regina was asleep in the passenger seat, and Frank, Metroman, and Hal lay on the floor. The Barth was packed, but the truck was specifically for whoever was on watch, and that was Megamind.

Roxanne quietly stood up from the seat, stepped over the men on the floor, and managed to get to the door without making hardly any sound. Bending down, she laced up her boots and then stood back up. The door handle creaked slightly as she turned it and she winced. Looking around though, she saw that everyone was still fast asleep. She opened the door the rest of the way and closed it quietly.

Megamind sat in the truck, looking out at the woods with a gun in one cup holder and a hunting knife in the other, ready for any zombie to come out of the woods. He jumped when a figure darted in front of the passenger side window. Roxanne knocked on the window and he leaned forward quickly and opened it.

"Roxanne!" he exclaimed in surprise as she leaped into the truck and closed the door. "What are you doing?"

"I couldn't sleep," Roxanne said breathlessly as she moved her wet bangs out of her face. Her hair had begun to grow longer due to lack of care, though it as still pretty short. "Also, I wanted to see how you were doing."

"Ohm, I'm doing fine. Why wouldn't I be?"

"You heard Hal. I know you did. What I want to know is whether you heard all of it," Roxanne said seriously, looking him in the eyes.

"Let's see, I started listening around when he told you he didn't like me training you to be a killer," Megamind said with slight anger in his voice.

Roxanne winced and said, "So you heard from the beginning huh?"

"Yepp," Megamind answered.

"Look Megs, Hal is dumb. He doesn't know what he's talking about," Roxanne said comfortingly. "None of us think you're a bad person."

Megamind didn't respond, but after a few seconds he said with a smirk, "You look like you need a towel, Roxanne."

Roxanne released a laugh and rolled her eyes. "Ya think?"

Megamind smiled at her and then leaned over to open the glove box. "There's a small cloth here that you could use."

"There isn't any zombie blood on it?" Roxanne asked jokingly and Megamind laughed.

"No zombie blood on it," Megamind replied.

He leaned forward with the small towel and wiped the dripping water from her face delicately. Her face was soon dry except for a new drop that fell from her hair onto her cheek.

Megamind's hand stopped on the side of her face for a moment and he stared at her beautiful blue eyes. Roxanne brought up a hand and placed I gently on his that was still resting on her face.

Megamind then slowly leaned forward and his lips locked onto hers. The towel dropped from his hand and into Roxanne's seat as his hand cupped the back of her head. Roxanne leaned heavily into the kiss. Her hands were on his back, pressing him closer to her.

Roxanne crawled on top of him until soon they were lying down on the seats. They boots clunked together before they kicked them forcefully off of their feet in aggravation. Their kiss was becoming more passionate by the second, their tongues dancing together and their legs entertwined with each other. Megamind's fingers brushed through Roxanne's hair and she let out a small groan of satisfaction. She bit his lip playfully in a way of thanking him.

Along with the passion, a tiny bit of aggression came into play. Roxanne found herself rising Megamind's shirt above his head, he allowed her to do so considering he had been wanting to do the same to her. He just didn't want to cross any boundaries that she wasn't ready to pass yet. They were suddenly leaning against the passenger side door, and Roxanne's tank top on the floor of the truck. She straddled him as they continued, forgetting the world they lived in, shutting out the terrors that had taken place in their lives over the past couple of months.

**…**

Hal awoke from his spot on the floor. He wasn't sure what had awoken him, but he sat up when he realized that Roxanne wasn't on the window seat anymore. The rain was still pouring outside so this confused him. Where could she possibly have gone when it was still pouring rain outside?

A thought suddenly crossed his mind and his eyebrows furrowed in anger. Megamind and her were probably training how to fight zombies in the rain or something.

"That's it," Hal mumbled to himself and he stood up and walked out of the Barth after putting on his boots. He was going to stop this training once and for all.

When he was outside, he started marching across the camp but then stopped at what he saw.

The truck's windows were so fogged up that he couldn't see inside. They weren't fogged from smoke, but from a heat going on inside. He knew that Megamind was in there, and he knew that Roxanne must have been in there as well.

Hal was breathing hard as realization hit him of what was going on between the two. He had been denying it for weeks, but now there was no doubt at all.

The rain poured down on him. He was completely soaked; the water trailed down his face that was now contorted with pain, rage, and disbelief at the same time. He ran past the steamy truck and into the woods.

He ran his fingers through his ginger hair, causing it to slick back due to the length it had grown over the past couple of months. He let out a cry of anger and pain. Spinning around, his fist connected with a tree hard enough to split his knuckles. The pain shot up his arm but he found that he enjoyed it. All he wanted was for this love-sick pain to go away. So he continued punching the tree with both hands along with releasing shouts and cries of frustration.

Then, with his knuckles bleeding and raw, he fell to the ground on his knees. Tears mixed with rain drops as they both fell from his face and onto the ground.

**…**

Megamind and Roxanne were laying in the truck together, completely unaware that Hal was no longer in the Barth and that he was now more furious at Megamind than ever before.

Roxanne opened her eyes slowly and smiled at the face that greeted her. Megamind's eyes were closed and his breathing was steady, showing that he was asleep. This was good considering he hadn't been getting nearly enough sleep for the past couple of months. He most likely wouldn't be too pleased in the morning once he found out that he had slept completely through the night; but at the moment, he was at peace and not caring about anything.

It was the first time Roxanne had seen his eyebrows not furrowed or his fists unclenched as he slept. Roxanne nuzzled her face into the crook of his neck and sighed contentedly. With that, she fell asleep.

**…**

Minion walked outside early the next morning to be greeted by a rainbow in the sky and only a small amount of grey overcast. The sun shined through the thin grey clouds and birds were chirping.

Minion hummed happily as he started over toward the fire pit to attempt to start a fire with a couple cigars and some wet logs. He stopped in his humming however when he caught sight of the pickup truck. The windows were still partially fogged and he couldn't see anyone inside.

Tipping his head in confusion and forgetting about starting a fire, he began walking over to the vehicle. He looked inside and could only see feet on the otherside. Other than that, the windows were still too fogged over for him to see anything.

"Hm," Minion said curiously.

He rapped his knuckles on the window, but there was no response.

"Sir? Sir, what are you doing?" Minion asked.

Again, there was no answer. Getting slightly aggravated at the lack of response, Minion opened the driver's side door as he said, "Sir, I'm talking to y-"

He stopped short and his eyes grew wide. Roxanne's head shot up as she awoke suddenly.

"Oh!" she cried as she sat up and attempted to cover up her breast with her arms.

Megamind awoke suddenly and saw Minion holding the door open and his mouth hanging agape.

"Oh shit!" Megamind cried as he sat up as well.

"I-I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" Minion said as he covered his eyes with his hands.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Megamind cried.

"I DON'T KNOW! I WAS GOING TO START A FIRE BUT THE WINDOWS WERE FOGGED AND-"

"BUT WHY DID YOU OPEN THE DOOR?"

"I DON'T KNOW!"

"CLOSE IT!"

"OKAY!" Minion cried and then slammed the door shut.

He turned away from the door, still blushing furiously.

Megamind and Roxanne fumbled to put their shirts and boots back on while cursing quietly all the way.

"Minion! What happened?" Warden cried as he ran out of the Barth along with Frank and Metroman.

Megamind and Roxanne stumbled out of the truck and stood beside Minion.

"What uh, what?" Megamind asked as he straightened his shirt around the thick bandages that he still had on him.

"I heard shouting! What happened? What's wrong?" Warden asked.

"Shouting? Oh! There was a um…a _spee-ider_," Megamind lied.

There was a moment of silence before Frank asked in disbelief, "A spider?"

"Oh yeah, it was huge," Roxanne said, nodding.

"So you scream over a spider but when a zombie comes around you-" Frank started saying, trying to make sense of the matter. He was interrupted though as Regina, Bridgette, and Bernard came out of the Barth as well.

"Were you honestly screaming over an arachnid?" Bernard asked dully as he crossed his arms. "And here I was thinking a herd of zombies walked into camp."

"Uh, nope!" Roxanne said too cheerfully. "Just a big hairy spider! Minion squished it."

Everyone looked at Minion as though awaiting his approval of this event being true.

"Uh-uh-um…yepp. That definitely happened," Minion said almost robotically.

Regina looked around and said, "Hey, does anyone know where Hal is?"

"You mean he's not in the Barth?" Roxanne asked.

There wasn't a chance to reply as the said person came walking out of the woods and back into camp. He looked a mess; with mud covering his boots and jeans and his hair still damp from the rain. His knuckles were angry looking and small bits of skin hung from them.

"Hal!" Roxanne cried, alarmed by the state of him. "What happened to you?"

"Just had to get some stress out is all," Hal said in such an angry tone that no one had heard him use before.

He wasn't looking at Roxanne as he said it though; instead his glare was aimed at Megamind. They made eye contact and Megamind's eyebrows furrowed.

"While I was out, I came across an abandoned campground," Hal continued in the same tone of voice. "I'm assuming that's where you got the water bottle case?" his question was aimed in a smart alic way toward Megamind.

"Yes," Megamind answered in a mono tone voice.

"Well then I suggest we go there today to scavenge," Hal said as he began walking away from them. "We're starting to run out of cigars and other food."

Megamind watched him as he walked away, his eyebrows still furrowed. Roxanne watched Hal as he walked away as well, curious as to why he was acting in such a way. She had a feeling it wasn't because of the argument the day before.

"Alright then," Metroman said, breaking the silence. "I guess that's our mission for today. So we're going to the campground after breakfast?"

Everyone looked at Megamind for an answer. He looked at them as well after a moment and said, "Yes. We'll go after breakfast."

The group broke apart to get to work on starting a fire and catching fish for breakfast. Megamind stayed standing in the same spot and looked over at Hal again. The ginger man sat on one of the logs that surrounded the fire pit, sharpening a hunting knife while glaring over at him in anger.

**…**

**Hope you enjoyed this longer chapter!**


	14. Chapter 14

Hello all! I'm curious as to whether or not I should title my chapters. I don't really like doing it, but sometimes readers prefer if the chapters are titled. Another thing I want to know is whether or not I should make this fic M or keep it T. Give me your input?

Enjoy.

**Dead**

**Fourteen**

**_"'Cause when it feels like a kick in the teeth, I can take it. Throw your stones and you won't see me break it. Say what you want, take your shots. You're setting me free with one more kick in the teeth."_**

**Kick In The Teeth by Papa Roach**

Megamind and Warden both walked through the woods toward the campsite. Hal was going to go but he decided at the last minute not to, though, they weren't sure why.

There wasn't too much mud under the trees, but when the two men got to the clearing where the abandoned campsite was, the mud was thick.

The two walked cautiously into the camp, further in than Megamind had been before when he grabbed the half-empty case of water bottles. There was a foul smell emitting from the campground, but it wasn't overwhelming.

"Shall we look inside the tents then? We'd find more dry kindling," Warden offered.

Megamind nodded and found a tent that was zipped completely. He grabbed the zipper and pulled it up to open the flap. As soon as the flap opened, more odor came out of the once enclosed space, signaling that something had died in there. The two men grimaced and made noises of disgust.

When Megamind peered inside though, there was no body.

"No zombie, no dead body," Megamind stated. "And nothing we can possibly use. This tent must have already been stripped by other survivors; or maybe when the zombies raided it the other day."

Megamind backed away from the tent just as he heard a click from behind him. He turned around to see Warden had lit a cigar.

"I thought Hal said we were almost out," Megamind said.

Warden smirked and blew out some smoke while speaking around the cylinder, "He must have not been looking in the right spot because we have loads of cigars left. The dumbass…" There was a hint of anger in his voice that was directed at the ginger man. Warden then handed a cigar to the blue man along with the lighter. "Here, it will help with the smell when we go inside the tents."

Megamind put the cylinder between his lips gratefully. He then tapped his temple and pointed at Warden in a way of saying "good thinking." Warden grinned and the two men went in opposite directions to cover more ground.

Upon entering his fifth tent, the smoke swirling out of the end of his cigar hardly helped at all with the stench. Megamind winced a bit as he crouched inside and saw a dead body right in the middle of the tent. Megamind managed to find some newspapers and books from that tent and put it in his backpack.

Upon entering another tent, there was a zombie whom was once a woman. She had a severe bite to the middle of her neck and on the side of her face. Megamind had managed to lure the zombie out of the tent so he could stab her in the head with a sharp stick that had been used as a fire-poker. The stick went straight through her eye and she fell to the ground.

From that tent Megamind found a few books with which he placed in his backpack.

Megamind stood in the spot where him and the Warden had began because that was where they said they would meet. As he waited, he saw in the distance two small buildings side-by-side. He squinted at it to try and figure out what it was.

When the Warden came up next to him he asked, "Did you find anything?"

Megamind removed the cigar from between his lips and stared at the building and said, "Yeah. Say, what are those buildings over there?"

The Warden looked over as well and said, "Hm, I don't know. Wash houses maybe."

Megamind and Warden then looked at each other in realization.

**…**

Hal scraped the arrowhead along the knife, sharpening it. No one paid much mind to him; everyone figured he was angry because of the argument that took place the day before.

Roxanne hadn't spoken to him at all. She didn't want to. What he had said was completely uncalled for. Megamind hadn't done anything wrong to him or her. He'd also been taking care of the whole group for two months straight.

"We're back!" the Warden's voice caused Hal to stop sharpening the knife and look up at the two men returning to camp. He let out an angry growl as he saw Megamind place the backpack down on the ground across the fire pit from him.

"What did you guys find?" Regina asked as she came over to them.

"Enough stuff to start fires for the next few nights, as well as a place to shower," the Warden said with a grin.

The camp went silent and looked at him.

"A place to what?" Regina asked.

"To shower," the Warden repeated, his grin still on his face.

"Are you kidding me? Please tell me you are not joking," Bridgette said happily as she walked over to them, Charlie, Billy, and Alexa following.

"There are wash houses down at the abandoned campground," Megamind said. "There's probably enough water pressure remaining for all of us."

The whole camp cheered except for Hal who began sharpening the knife again.

"Half of the group can go get their showers in first then the next half can go," Megamind said.

As the two groups were being made, Megamind walked over to the fire pit and tossed the last bit of his cigar into the fire. Hal watched him with menacing eyes as he continued to sharpen the knife.

**…**

After their showers, everyone felt squeaky clean. Even though they didn't have any soap or shampoo or conditioner, and even though the water was cold, they were still extremely grateful. Now, they all sat around the fire in the late evening, laughing and telling stories.

This place was starting to feel more and more like home. With hardly any zombies, the place certainly had a home-like feel. Their only mission now aside from staying alive, was to find Charlie, Billy, and Alexa's parents.

Megamind dreaded if he ever found the other little girl's parents. He didn't want to tell them that their daughter was dead. The Warden had told the three children that the little girl had found her parents and that's why she hadn't come back with them the other night. They believed it thankfully. For the time being though, they were all having a wonderful time around the fire pit.

"I'll be right back," the Warden said and then stood up.

The group acknowledged this and then continued talking in a group. Hal was quiet of course. He had been quiet all day. At times it would make the group feel uneasy, but at this moment they were relaxed.

It wasn't until rustling could be heard in the woods behind them, that they became tense and cautious.

"What was that?" Regina asked.

Megamind stood up and said, "I don't know. I'll go see."

Just as he was walking away however, Hal stood up as well and said, "I'm coming too."

Megamind looked at him a moment before saying in a monotone voice, "Okay."

As the two walked over to the woods, they stopped and looked around before cautiously walking into the trees. Looking around again, they still saw nothing. Megamind looked at Hal and said, "You go that way, I'll go this way."

Hal nodded and turned away. Megamind began walking in the other direction, knife at the ready for any zombie attack.

What he didn't realize though, was that Hal's eyes were on him like a hawk on a mouse. His focus was locked on him as he removed the gun from his pocket. He lifted it up and closed an eye to make his aim better. He was breathing heavy as he envisioned the bullet soaring through the air and going right into Megamind's head. Either that or his neck. Whichever one it went into, he would die.

The gun was loaded, all he needed to do was cock it and pull the trigger. That's it. Nothing more, nothing less.

Suddenly, the Warden came into his line of fire and he lowered his gun quickly, his hands shaking slightly. He saw the Warden say a few words to Megamind and he nodded and began walking out of the woods. The Warden stayed behind for a couple of seconds to look at Hal with a hardened expression. The two made eye contact for those two seconds before the Warden began walking out of the woods.

Hal followed suit but passed the two men and went into the Barth. The Warden watched him go inside and kept his eyes on that particular direction as Megamind made his way back over to the fire pit, explaining that the noise must have just been an animal.

"Warden!" Roxanne called and the man looked over. "Are you coming?" she asked.

"Oh, um, yeah!" he called over and walked over to the fire pit to join the group.

...

Over the days that followed, the Warden kept a close eye on Hal; especially when he was around Megamind. The Warden knew he hadn't imagined the gun being pointed. He knew what his intentions were.

The Warden hadn't spoke of it to anyone else. He didn't want anyone panicking or feeling unsafe within their group. Whenever Megamind would be alone around Hal, the Warden made sure that he found a reason to take him away, even if the reason was completely made-up.

The sun was shining in mid-afternoon, Regina and Bridgette were with Charlie, Alexa, and Billy - they were picking up seashells. Minion and Metroman were starting a fire to prepare dinner later that night. Frank had gone into the woods to see if he could catch an animal rather than fish for dinner. Roxanne was writing in her journal by the fire pit while Megamind stood at the water's edge with a cigar between his lips.

There was a small squeal from Alexa and Megamind whipped his head around. Alexa ran behind his legs though and clutched onto the denim fabric. She peaked around and Megamind followed her gaze to where Charlie was holding a crab and Billy was watching it wriggle in awe. Bridgette had backed away, for it was giving her the creeps. Regina watched them and told them to be careful with it.

The two boys noticed that Megamind was watching them and Charlie held the crab up higher by one of its legs.

"We found a crab!" he cried joyfully.

The crab then wriggling more violently and escaped his hold. It fell to the sand and began crawling away straight toward Megamind and Alexa.

Alexa squealed again but Megamind placed the cigar behind his ear and bent down and scooped it up in his hands. The crab's beady eyes looked up at him and then shifted over to Alexa when she moved from behind Megamind's shoulder.

Megamind grinned at her nervousness and he said gently, "There's nothing to be afraid of. It's just a crab."

"But-but it has pinchers!" she argued.

"It won't pinch you. Go on, touch it," Megamind urged.

Cautiously, Alexa reached out and gently ran her fingers along the crab's top behind its eyes. She giggled as its tiny black eyes moved a bit at her touch.

"If you think about it, he is kinda cute," she said as she looked at it more closely.

"Want to hold it?" Megamind asked.

The girl looked hesitant but held out her cupped hands. When Megamind tipped his hands over top hers, the crab walked sideways into the girl's hands. She giggled again, causing Megamind to grin at her.

Suddenly there was a shout of aggravation, catching his attention.

"Why don't you watch where you're going?!" Hal shouted at Bernard, who was on the ground.

His glasses were lopsided and a book lay a couple feet away. Bernard crawled over and grabbed the book he had dropped and glared up at the man.

"You have eyes, why don't _you _watch where _you're _going?" Bernard asked matter-of-factly as he stood up.

"Maybe you should keep your nose out of your book while your walking!" Hal shouted. "And wasn't that book gathered so that it could be used for fires?"

"Megamind said that I could keep it," Bernard answered calmly but with slight venom in his voice.

Hal growled and glared over at Megamind who was watching the argument take place.

"Of course he did," Hal growled out as he glared over at him.

"No need to be angry about it," Bernard said simply. "Maybe you should try reading a book. It will keep your mind off of your jealousy."

Hal whipped around then at this comment. Bernard was already walking past him, but Hal grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. He clutched his shirt collar in his fists and got close to his face.

"What did you say to me?!" he shouted.

There wasn't a time for Bernard to say anything as Hal punched him in the face. Bernard went down and held his eye with one hand.

This was the time for someone to step in, so Metroman and Megamind started over toward the argument. Hal had Bernard pinned on the ground but the two men pulled him off with great force.

Hal turned on Megamind and went to punch him in the face. Megamind dodged the fist just as he saw the shine of a blade come toward him.

Megamind hit the inside of his elbow joint that held the knife and Hal cried out and dropped the knife. Megamind held him down on the ground and said dangerously in his ear, "Are you quite finished?"

"Ah! Yes!" Hal cried out.

Megamind got off of him and backed away in case the man swung again. He didn't, but as soon as he stood up he glared the most menacing glare yet in his direction. The camp was silent as they awaited anything that may happen next.

There was a small cry of surprise as the crab that Alexa had been holding wriggled out of her hands. Hal looked down as the crab crawled quickly over in their direction. He lifted up his foot and stomped down on it, causing the crab to get smushed with a cracking sound.

Alexa cried out as she watched the crab get killed. A tear escaped her eye and she let out a small whimper. Hal felt no remorse at the little girl he'd just hurt and he walked away.

**...**

**Thanks to my reviewers of chapters 12-13:**

**Pumpkin Kuro**

**PreparedForZombies**

**Talani Silverwolf01**

**Birusa**

**GeorgieGirl999**

**Vast Difference**

**SalemAnderson**

**Watcher of the Hearts**

**PrettyKitty126**

**Also thanks to Nightcrawler's Shadow for allowing this story to be in her Alternate Un-ee-verse comm.**

**Hope you all are staying safe during this hurricane! **


	15. Chapter 15

**Dead**

**Fifteen**

**_"Without warning, we take everything; undaunted in this suffering. The dark forces surround everything. Make it impossible to see. Take their hope away. Take their life away. Leave them nothing left inside."_**

**Enough by Disturbed**

It had been two days since the incident, and Hal was continuing to make people feel uneasy. This meant that the Warden had the ability to tell the members of the group what he had seen Hal doing the other day. Now there seemed to be no doubt that Hal wished to either injure Megamind or kill him.

The Warden had pulled Megamind aside and told him that he thought he should stay away from Hal for a while. Or at least until he cooled down from his anger about his relationship with Roxanne.

"Warden-" Megamind scoffed but the Warden interrupted him.

"No need to deny it kid," the Warden said with a smirk. "We all know you two have something going on. You think we didn't notice that you two came out of the truck at the _same time_ the other morning?"

Megamind blushed and stuttered. The Warden chuckled and clapped him on the shoulder as he walked away.

That same day, Megamind, Frank, and the Warden were gathering guns, ammo, and knives to set out. They were going out to search for Charlie, Billy, and Alexa's parents. Megamind was standing on the step of the passenger side, sharpening his knife with an arrowhead while Frank was in the bed of the truck, loading his gun with ammo.

"Can I come to?" Hal asked rather casually.

Frank stared at him from the bed of the truck while the Warden gave him a skeptical look as he stood next to the driver's side door. Megamind, who was still standing on the step of the passenger side and had one elbow propped on the roof and the other on the top of the open door, stared at him as well.

"Uh, yeah," he said.

"Are you sure you want to, man?" Frank asked with slight venom in his voice. "You haven't had much experience with zombies."

"Yeah I'm sure," Hal scoffed, acting like his old normal self. "I'm not worried about it. Hold on, let me grab a couple weapons."

When Hal walked away, the Warden looked up at Megamind and said, "If he does anything funny, don't hesitate to hurt him."

Frank let out a laugh as Megamind rolled his eyes and looked over to where Roxanne was walking over to them. "I'm not worried about it," he said just as Roxanne got there.

She climbed up on the step with him and kissed him on the lips. His eyes grew wide at this and he blushed. This was the first time they had shown any type of affection toward each other while in the presence of others.

"Good luck," Roxanne said as she looked up at him. "Please be safe?"

"Uh-um...I will," Megamind stuttered.

Roxanne grinned and then hopped off the step and on the ground. As she walked away, Frank looked up at him with a big grin on his face.

"Awwww," he cooed, causing Megamind to blush even more.

Megamind chucked the sharpening rock at Frank and it clunked him on the head.

"Ow!"

As they drove away from camp for the first time in what seemed like forever, after about fifteen minutes they entered a town. They parked at the edge so as not to make too much noise to attract any zombies that could be lurking.

Frank leapt out of the bed of the truck as a zombie began walking up to the truck. He stabbed it in the forehead then backed up to where the Warden and Megamind were standing. There were two more zombies in the distance but they paid no mind to them as they spoke.

"Alright, we need to cover as much ground as possible, but we can't separate," Megamind said. "We have to stick together. We don't want one person coming across too many zombies they can't handle."

The Warden and Frank nodded and the three men set off. Before exiting the street, they stabbed the two zombies and turned right.

Within five minutes, they realized that the town was full of zombies. It was as though there were no survivors. It was as though the whole town had turned.

Megamind, Warden, Hal, and Frank ducked behind a parked car to avoid the zombie's eyes that were walking in the street.

"These things are everywhere," Frank whispered as a zombie inside of a shop saw them and slapped a hand on the window. "Is it even possible for there to be any survivors here?"

Megamind didn't reply but instead looked over the car to be sure none of the zombies on the street had seen them.

Two more zombies joined the one already at the window. They slapped their hands on the window at attempts to get to them. Suddenly, a zombie knocked hard against the car they were hiding behind and the alarm began going off.

"Shit! Get under the car, go, go!" Megamind said in a low urgent voice.

The three men obeyed and crawled under the car just as a zombie came around the corner where they were once hiding.

"I'm saying this mission is a fail," Frank said, not even bothering to keep his voice low anymore since the car alarm was drowning it out.

The car alarm was bringing an extreme amount of unwanted attention from zombies from other streets. Within a matter of three minutes, their car was surrounded by zombies; within eight minutes, their street was full of them.

The car alarm shut off suddenly and the four men's breath became more shallow; they were paranoid that even their breathing was too loud. The zombie's feet were dragging clumsily along the ground all around the vehicle. It was rather difficult to hide four grown men under one ordinary car. Frank and Megamind's shoulders were almost showing from underneath the vehicle. The silent plan that the four men had in their minds was to wait until the zombies cleared out. How long this would take, they had no idea.

All they knew was that they were going to be under the car for quite a while.

**…**

A man with a shaved head and balbo beard stared out the window through a crack in the curtains. He squinted at the amount of zombies that had suddenly flooded their street. He had, of course, heard the car alarm that had gone off but that didn't explain the flash of natural skin from underneath the vehicle.

His nostrils flared for a moment and his eyes widened as realization hit. Closing the curtain and whipping around, he looked into the room that held a brunette man and woman, a woman with red-dyed hair, and a man with blonde hair; they all sat on a couple of mattresses looking forlorn. Standing beside them was a man with a leather jacket on, holding a hunting rifle.

The man noticed the look on the bearded man's face and asked, "Whassa matter Jim? Did the alarm attract a lot of them?"

"Oh yeah," Jim answered. "But there's something else."

The rest of the group looked up at him.

"There's people out there," Jim then said. "Survivors."

**…**

The four men had been under the car for twenty minutes and the zombies were not clearing the street. They were all still shambling around and the zombies inside the store were still slapping the glass to get at them.

Suddenly, running steps could be heard coming from up the street toward their car. Then gun shots rang out in the street. Zombies fell all around the vehicle. One in particular fell right in front of Megamind's face. It's mouth and yellow-red eyes were open; the tiny pupils were staring straight at him.

"Hey! You, underneath the car! Get out from under there and follow!" a man's voice shouted.

The four men shared a glance at each other before crawling quickly out from underneath the vehicle. Zombies greeted them and they greeted them back with shots to the head. As they ran to follow the stranger, they shot multiple zombies in the head.

The men ran down an alleyway and the man ran up a few metal steps then leaped over a relatively tall metal gate. The other men followed suit. For each flight of steps up to the third floor, there was a small gate that had been padlocked on for to ensure more safety to the survivors in the safe haven.

As soon as the stranger opened the door, he ushered them all in and then closed the door. Upon entering the safe haven, it brought back memories of the one they had what seemed like forever ago. It was a smaller space, and they were on the top floor, but it was only as high as three stories – not nearly as safe as their first haven.

No matter how safe or unsafe it was, the four men were extremely grateful for the rescue.

"Thank you so much," the Warden said.

"No problem," the man said as he locked the door. "You four looked like you needed some help out there," he joked.

Frank scoffed and nodded as he continued looking around at the space.

"Anyway, the name's Jim," he said.

The four men introduced themselves and Jim smiled politely and said, "Nice to meet you. Now, come and meet the others."

They walked into another room and Jim introduced them to everyone. The red-haired woman was named Margaret, the blonde man was Phil. The brunette couple was named Morgan and Tom. The man standing beside the two mattresses was Zane.

The four on the mattresses were lying rather awkwardlys. Each couple was lying sideways on the mattresses, holding hands from underneath the pillows their heads were resting on.

The couples put on smiles and said in rather shaky voices, "Hello, nice to meet you."

Megamind's eyebrows furrowed and he looked at Zane. The two men made eye contact before Megamind's gaze shifted down to the hunting rifle he was holding.

Megamind turned to Jim and asked in a joking way, "Are you guarding them or something?"

Jim didn't answer for a moment but then smiled. "We just like to be prepared for anything."

Megamind didn't reply. Instead, he looked over at the couples on the mattresses who were still in their awkward positions.

"See, they don't do much," Jim explained. "They don't like talking very much either. They lost some family friends the other day to the zombies. They also lost their kids."

Megamind and the other men then turned their heads to look at Jim. A small jingling noise caused Megamind's attention to go back to the couples on the beds. Margaret had her eyes closed and she was biting her lip, as though she had revealed too much with that small noise.

There was a small flash of metal from underneath the pillow that her and her husband's hands were under. Margaret covered it and looked up. She made eye contact with Megamind for a short second before Jim's voice caught his attention.

He had walked over to the window and was looking through the curtains.

"I don't think these zombies will be clearing out anytime soon," he said before turning around and facing them. "You might have to stay the night."

"Well thank you but I think we ought to-" the Warden started but Megamind interrupted.

"Thank you," Megamind said. "We'll leave first thing in the morning."

The men looked over at Megamind in surprise and Jim smiled politely and said, "Alrighty then! We have some spare blankets in the back. I'll go get them."

Night fell a few hours later. The couples on the mattresses were asleep and Zane sat on a wooden chair, still holding his hunting rifle. Jim came into the room where they were all camped out, with the blankets and pillows on the floor that the four men were supposed to sleep in the corner.

"There are bottles of water in the back room if you're thirsty," he said with a polite smile. "Hope you all have a good night's sleep." He then walked to a separate bedroom for himself.

As the three men lay down about thirty minutes later, Megamind stood up and walked out of the room, Zane watching him every step of the way. Megamind listened at the door of Jim's room. He waited until he heard the steady sound of his breathing to be sure he was asleep. A few moments later, he entered the room at the doorway where Zane was perched. He stood there with a bottle of water in his hand. Unscrewing the cap, he took a drink and dropped the cap purposely on the floor.

"Whoops," he said. Zane looked at him out of the corner of his eye then stared forward again.

Megamind then spilled some of the water on the floor purposely.

"Whoops," he commented again and Zane rolled his eyes but kept his face forward.

Frank sat up and smirked. "Man, how clumsy can you be?"

"I don't know," Megamind shrugged and then splashed the water on Zane's head.

Zane sputtered as the water dripped down his face and he let out a noise of frustration. Megamind tossed the water bottle on the mattress where the couples were to stifle any noise. They stared at it with confusion.

"Seriously? What's the matter with y-" Zane started to say as he turned his head.

As soon as his head was turned though, Megamind straightened his hands and chopped him on both sides of his neck right on the pressure points. The man's eyes rolled back and he collapsed to the floor face-first.

The Warden and Frank's mouths fell agape and Frank asked incredulously, "What did you do?"

"Pressure points," Megamind said casually and then walked over to where the couples were laying with wide eyes. "Don't worry; he's not dead, just knocked out."

"Um, okay, and _why _did you knock him out exactly?" Frank asked, but as soon as Megamind lifted the pillows off of the couple's hand and revealed the handcuffs underneath, Frank and Warden's eyes grew wide. "Woah, what the-"

The two men walked over to see the couple had their hands cuffed together, and the handcuffs were tied to the other couple's handcuffs.

"Bobby pin?" Megamind asked as he held out his hand. Margaret lifted up her free hand to remove the bobby pin shakily from her hair and handed it to him.

Megamind quickly peeled the plastic tip off of the edge and bent it into a new shape. He inserted the end into the key hole and wiggled it about. Within a second, the handcuffs unlocked and the couple removed their hands and rubbed their wrists. Megamind went over and did the same to the other couple's and they did the same actions.

"We need to leave quietly," Megamind said in a low voice to them.

"They have kept us here for a while now, ever since zombies raided our camp-" Margaret said in a low and upset voice as the Warden collected Zane's hunting rifle and Frank handcuffed his hands together behind his back. "They've been keeping us here so that when they need to leave town, they'll use us as bait to lure the zombies away." Her lips trembled as she spoke and a couple of tears fell from her eyes.

"Are your kid's names Billy, Charlie, and Alexa?" Megamind asked, disregarding what she had been saying. Their eyes got wide.

"You've seen them?" Tom asked seriously. "Where?"

Morgan had tears in her eyes as she asked, "Are they alright?"

"They're fine," Megamind replied. "They're at our camp. We just need to leave here quickly so that Zane doesn't wake up and alert his _master_ in the other room."

The couples nodded and they stood up. As they started over to the door, Megamind bent down and unlocked it with the bobby pin. They all exited except for Megamind, who kept standing inside. He looked around at the quiet haven.

"Megamind, what are you doing? We need to go!" Frank said urgently.

"Where's Hal?" Megamind asked, turning to them.

The men looked at each other, but didn't have time to answer before Jim's door could be heard opening and closing. Megamind waved his hand at the group and whispered, "Go!"

"We can't leave you here!" the Warden whispered back as Frank began luring the couples down the steps.

"I'll catch up! Go!" Megamind said and closed the door and locked it so the Warden couldn't answer.

As soon as the door closed, Jim's voice came from behind him, "Well, well, well."

Megamind didn't have a chance to turn around as he was pushed forward and held against the wall. There was no time to fight back as his hands were cuffed behind his back.

"Thanks for alerting me, Hal," Jim said as he kept Megamind against the wall with a knife to his throat.

Hal watched the scene with malicious glee and crossed his arms, "No problemo comprende."

"I'm going to go wake up Zane," Jim said, handing Hal the knife along with a chain and padlock. "Make sure he doesn't get away."

Hal took the knife gratefully and led Megamind out the door. There was no sign of the Warden, Frank, Margaret, Phil, Morgan, or Tom; this led Megamind to believe they must have escaped. There were also fewer zombies at the bottom of the stairs in the alleyway. This caused Megamind to realize they must have been chased as well. Megamind hoped they had all gotten away. These hopeful thoughts soon left as he felt his hands being un-cuffed. There was a short moment of hope as he thought that Hal might have had a change of heart; but instead, Hal kept his left had locked and latched the other cuff onto the railing. He then wrapped the chain around his ankle and then padlocked it to the railing. Megamind would have fought back if he wasn't being threatened with a knife. He knew at the slightest moment of fight, Hal would kill him. Then what good would Megamind be to his group?

Megamind scoffed and rolled his eyes. "So, what? You're going to leave me out here to starve or something?"

Hal smirked and said, "Oh, there won't be enough time for that."

He removed a gun from his pocket and Megamind waited for it to be aimed at him; but instead, Hal aimed it toward the sky and pulled the trigger five times. The bangs echoed through the quiet town.

Megamind heard the zombies below growling hungrily and he looked up at Hal, "What are you doing?"

Hal grinned down at him and said with malice, "Ringing the dinner bell."

In the next moment, Hal ran down the stairs hollering at the top of his lungs, "COME ON! COME AND GET IT! DINNER TIME YOU NASTY, SMELLY SONS OF BITCHES! COME AND GET IT!"

Hal watched in glee as zombies gathered in the alleyway underneath and stared up at them. Their arms and hands were reaching upward, wanting desperately to reach them.

Megamind glared at Hal as he walked back up the steps. He spoke over the growling, "How do you expect them to get up here exactly?"

The door opened and Jim was leaning against the doorway with Zane, "These steps and railings are rusty. It shouldn't take too long for them to make it up here. Don't you worry."

Hal stepped inside and waved at him, "Toodaloo!" The three men then closed the door and locked it.

Megamind looked down at the zombies. More and more were making their way into the crowd. The gate they were attempting to get through on the steps was creaking dangerously against their weight.

Megamind closed his eyes and reminded himself that the others would be back for him soon. They would get there in time. Hopefully.

**…**

**Thanks to my reviewers of Chapter 14:**

**GeorgieGirl999**

**Talani Silverwolf01**

**Pumpkin Kuro**

**Pannanarae18**

**Ducklin**

**Birusa**

**PrettyKitty126**

**KisaWolfz**


	16. Chapter 16

Never fear everyone! I'm still alive after Sandy! Hope all of you are alright too!

ENJOY.

**Dead**

**Sixteen**

**_ "Imagine all the people, living life in peace. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one."_**

**Imagine by John Lennon**

A car rattled into camp and everyone turned to look at it. They furrowed their eyebrows at it in curiosity, having never seen this vehicle before. One of the headlights was broken, leaving the other shining alone. The bumper was rusty and the noise it made was as though it were about to stop working any moment.

Bernard had a water bottle on the black eye that Hal had given him. It wasn't necessarily cold, but it was still something. He stood up to get a better look at the foreign car just as Metroman laughed.

"Did you guys lose the truck or something?" he joked as the Warden and Frank stepped out.

The back door then opened and everyone's expression turned even more surprised as the four strangers stepped out. They looked around in curiosity and anxiousness.

"Where are they?" Margaret asked, stepping toward the Warden. "Where's my boys?"

"Mom? Dad?" Billy's voice could be heard behind them and they turned around.

Margaret, Phil, and the two boys ran toward each other and embraced. They sat on the ground in a mix of tears, hugs, kisses, and muffled talking. Morgan and Tom were about to ask where their child was until a small voice could be heard from in front of them.

"Mommy? Daddy?" Alexa asked tiredly as she stepped out of the Barth. When she saw it was them, a wide grin came on her face and she cried, "You're here!"

She barely got the two words out as Morgan and Tom ran and embraced her. Soon, they were the same mix as the other family. The others at the camp smiled at the scene, happy that the children were reunited with their parents. Everyone except for Frank and the Warden – they were reloading their guns and preparing to get back in the car. Roxanne was smiling as well, but her smile soon faded as she realized they were missing two people; but Minion spoke up before her.

"Wait…where's Megamind?" he asked.

"And Hal?" Roxanne finished.

"They're not traveling separately together are they?" Regina asked, shocked that they could even risk such a thing.

The Warden looked up and said in an angry voice, "Nope."

"Well…then where are they?" Bridgette asked from beside her aunt.

"I don't know for sure," the Warden growled. "All I know is that son-of-a-bitch Hal betrayed us."

The camp gasped as Minion let out a cry.

"W-what? But, how?" Roxanne stammered.

"What did he do?!" Minion cried. "What do you mean?!"

"It would take too long to explain now," the Warden said as he got in the car. "I was expecting him to be back by now in the truck, that's why we came in this old thing. We left the truck for him to drive back to camp in."

"You-you were expecting him to be back by now?" Roxanne asked breathlessly. "What if something happened to him?!"

"We'll get him Roxanne don't worry!" the Warden said as he attempted to hot-wire the car to start it again. "He can take care of himself like we've said many times before."

Roxanne was going to say more but she noticed the way the Warden was having trouble starting the car. He was mumbling angrily to himself as the car would turn but not start.

"Great! Just great!" the Warden said angrily as he jumped out of the car, along with Frank. "What are we supposed to do now?"

"We could take the Barth," Frank suggested. "I mean…that's the only other vehicle we got."

"No, no, the Barth is needed by people here," the Warden said. "Besides it's not meant for quick travel like we need to be doing right now."

"Well then I suggest we get to running," Frank said as he tucked his gun away.

Just as they were about to leave however, stumbling footsteps could be heard coming from the woods. Everyone looked over but couldn't see anything since it was nighttime.

"Maybe he came back without the truck?" Regina suggested.

"Megamind?!" Frank called.

"Sir! Sir, is that you?!" Minion called into the woods as he stepped forward. He squinted into the woods, still hearing the stumbling steps. "Sir?"

A raspy, deep-throated breathing and grunting could be heard and Minion's eyes grew wide.

"Oh please have that not be you sir," Minion said in a worried voice.

At the next moment, a zombie with scraggly hair came limping out of the woods, it's mouth bloody and its lower lip missing.

Minion sighed and put a metal hand to his chest. "Oh, good!"

"Minion!" Roxanne cried as she ran forward with a hunting knife. "It's still a zombie!"

It didn't have time to let out another growl as she dug the knife deep into its forehead. She then removed it, now with a new coat of blood covering the silver.

"Damn girl," Frank said from back beside the rusty car.

Roxanne ignored him though as she stared with wide eyes into the woods. Stumbling back, she almost tripped over a rock but Minion caught her.

"Ms. Ritchie!" he said with surprise. "Are you alright? What's wrong?"

Roxanne pointed a finger toward the woods and said, "That's what's wrong."

Looking out while still holding onto Roxanne, he gasped and his fishy eyes went wide.

Walking through the woods and toward the camp were dozens of zombies. There was hardly any time to prepare, for they were almost at the edge of the woods.

**…**

Megamind was shaking his arm wildly to try and break the chain. He had also tried slipping it out of the cuffs, though that didn't work either. There wasn't much he could do with only one arm and one leg.

There was the sound of metal breaking as a gate broke through, allowing the zombie to get even closer to him.

Megamind rolled his eyes and mumbled to himself, "Perfect."

He then leaned back against the railing, his right arm bent and hanging from the handcuffs beside his head. The zombies had broken two of the gates already, there were only three more left.

Megamind listened to the hungry snarling of the undead below him and looked down, the zombies were still desperately trying to get at him; many of them also had their yellow-red eyes on him. One in particular caught his eye; she had long brown hair. It appeared that the flesh right beside her eye had been bit, causing her eyeball to be terribly distorted. There was also a deep bite on the same side of her face. It had been dug into so deep, that her molars could be seen.

The other half was quite beautiful. Her complexion, though dirty and bloody, could easily be seen as once being clear and glowing. He wondered what her life was like before all of this. He wondered what her life was like before she became a mindless undead creature that craved on the blood, flesh and insides of the living.

Megamind looked away from the zombies below him and attempted to get his hand lose again, only to fail. His skin was started to be rubbed raw from his attempts to escape. Even if he did escape, what was he supposed to do? He didn't have any weapons. Jim had made sure to strip him of his hunting knife and handgun.

Looking down again and seeing the undead below him, he thought of the group back at the camp. Upon looking at the brunette woman again who had half of her face eaten off, he thought of Roxanne.

No. He was not giving up, no matter what it took. This was not going to be their fate.

Tipping back his face toward the starry night sky, Megamind tried blocking out the sounds from the zombies below. After a few moments, his eyes snapped open as he thought of something.

Megamind immediately started looking around for his plan to pan out as the third-to-last rusty gate creaked dangerously. He wasn't sure where the others were or whether they already expected him to be on his way back to camp or whether they ran into trouble. It didn't matter now, because there wasn't too much time left for him to stay there.

Megamind flexed his right thumb and then punched it as hard as he could in the position he was in with his left fist. His thumb made a cracking sound but that didn't fulfill his goal. Biting his lip, he punched it again. There was the cracking sound of success as a bone in his thumb broke, he only grunted slightly though, not wasting any time with the pain. The loose bone was just enough for him to slip his hand out of the cuff with force.

Then, he got to work on the chain that was padlocked onto his ankle. He twisted it in every which way but there appeared to be no way of untangling it. Untying his boot and removing it made it easier, but the way out still wasn't clear. The sounds of the hungry zombies caused him to react quicker though as the third-to-last gate broke down. The zombies started stumbling and crawling their way up the steps to the second-to-last gate. A zombie managed to fall over that gate and land on its face. This, Megamind figured would be seen as extremely comical to Frank. His mind didn't linger on that moment for long though as the zombie crawled its way up the stairs.

Its face was against the bars of the last gate and its arm reached out. Its hand touched his free leg and he stomped on it with his heel. The zombie gave a loud growl and continued with its attempt, this time, managing to find balance on its feet to start crawling over the gate. There was then something in the zombie's hair that caught his eye. Squinting at it to be sure, there was no denying what he was seeing. All he had to do now was figure out how to get it without being bit. As the zombie fell to the floor right in front of him, he immediately shoved his booted foot in its face, reached forward with his right hand, his broken thumb crooked and useless, and pulled the bobby pin out of its hair. Just as the zombie became nearly too difficult to fight back with his foot, he brought it up and slammed his heel hard into the top of the zombie's head.

This left a large dent, but it didn't kill it. Lifting up his foot again and bringing it down hard fulfilled his goal.

The top of the zombie's head exploded. Blood spurted out onto his boot and it splashed up his jean leg. Clumsily bending the wire into the decent shape, he put it in the padlock and wiggled it around.

The gate that the zombies were pressed against was creaking dangerously still. It was only a matter of time before it broke and they could easily get to him.

A click sounded and the padlock came loose. Megamind immediately yanked his boot back on and stood up just as the gate broke. The zombies began stumbling up the stairs, trampling over each other in their desperation.

It was at that moment that there was no thinking that was involved with the next plan. There were two choices: stay and get eaten by zombies, or jump from a three-story home and hope for no broken bones.

Just as the zombies got to the gate and their fingers brushed against his back, he jumped over the railing and landed on the concrete. Though, the land definitely jarred him, miraculously, he took off at a limp-type run away from the stairs. He wasn't sure where he was going to go, but the important thing was that he had gotten away; for the moment anyway.

The only thing remaining of him were the empty, dangling handcuffs, and the chain and padlock.

**…**

**I apologize for any mistakes! I didn't have time to read over the chapter because I had to update it now or wait until tomorrow. I easily chose to update it now.**


	17. Chapter 17

I am so so so sorry I haven't updated in a while! I've been busy! I hope you enjoy this new chapter though.

**Dead**

**Seventeen**

**_ "Send a heartbeat to the void that cries through you. Relive the pictures that have come to pass. For now we stand alone. The world is lost and blown."_**

**The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning by The Smashing Pumpkins**

The zombies snarled after him as he ran. Megamind still didn't know where he was going. He didn't quite have a plan, there hadn't been a chance for him to think since he jumped from the platform.

As he turned a corner, he felt as though he recognized the buildings. It only took a few moments before he realized that he was in the area where himself, the Warden, Frank, and Hal had gotten out of the truck. He ran past the two zombies they had killed and saw the familiar vehicle a couple blocks away.

Keeping his running pace for another minute he got to it and skidded to a stop. He yanked open the door and got to work at hot wiring. A few zombies had caught up as he fumbled around with the wires. They slapped their hands on the windows, leaving bloody hand prints and trails as they slid. One zombie in particular climbed onto the hood and banged on the glass angrily, desperate to get inside.

The truck revved to life and Megamind sat up immediately in the driver's seat. He put the car in reverse and sped backwards, causing the hungry zombie on the hood to slip off. The other zombies were coming after the truck. Megamind stopped, put the car in drive, and lurched forward.

The zombie that was on the hood was working on standing back up when the truck ran it over. The front tire caused its head to explode like a water balloon. Megamind then put the car back into reverse and began driving back to camp, hitting a couple more zombies on the way out of town.

The sky was still dark by the time Megamind found the familiar road that led back into camp. As he continued driving though, he felt as though something wasn't right. He couldn't smell camp fire smoke. This was strange considering that they had built a fire every single night they had lived at this camp, unless it was raining.

As he continued driving on the dirt road, his headlights fell upon a zombie limping out of the trees. It turned its ugly head toward him and let out a small raspy sound before getting run over by the truck. Megamind only blinked as the body made the car thump.

Upon getting even closer to the camp, he saw more zombies on the road ahead of him. His eyes widened as he turned off the car, the headlights going off as well. He reached for his knife but then remembered that he had been stripped of all his weapons. He was still a few feet away from the camp but his feeling that something wasn't right grew even stronger. These zombies were right next to the camp, there was no way that no one would be able to notice them…unless the camp was no longer occupied.

Megamind opened the door and stepped out. He closed the door ever so gently so not to cause too much attention; but his arrival had already brought the attention of some of the zombies and they had began walking toward the truck.

Since he had no weapons, Megamind crouched down, embracing the fact that it was still dark, and crawled into the woods. The darkness of the woods and the way he was crouching concealed him from the zombies that were curiously assessing the truck. There was no doubt that they could smell the remnants of his scent inside. Wasting no more time, Megamind began walking in a crouched manner, and attempting to be as quiet as possible; all the while, looking for anything on the ground that he could use for a weapon.

Since he had parked merely a few feet away from the camp, it barely took any time to arrive. It took even less time to notice that zombies had completely taken over.

"Shit!" Megamind whispered sharply as he jumped quickly behind a thick tree to hide.

He disappeared from sight just as a zombie heard him and looked in his direction. This was the moment in which Megamind fully realized the situation he was in. There was no one else alive at that camp. The only ones left were him and the dead.

The Barth was even gone, indicating that at least some of his group had escaped. That also meant that there were more zombies at the time of their escape than there were presently on the beach and in the surrounding woods. These facts indicated that zombies could be anywhere in the woods with him. The only thing left of his group was an old vehicle that Megamind didn't recognize.

Megamind took a deep breath as he thought about what he should do. His broken thumb ached but he hardly paid any mind to it. The sound of a zombie getting closer and closer to his location made him realize once again that he had to find a weapon, and fast. He looked around desperately for anything he could use until his eyes fell on a semi large branch that had fallen from a tree. It had a few stray skinny branches attached to it, which would make it clumsier to swing. It was also about five feet in front of him, which meant that in order to get it, he would have to reveal himself to the zombie that was about to discover him; but it was the only weapon of choice.

Not thinking anymore, he dove forward and snatched the large, thick stick from the ground. The zombie saw him and started forward, but Megamind came toward him faster and swung the branch, hitting it hard in the head. This brought the attention of other zombies at the camp and they started toward him.

Keeping a tight hold on the branch, he started to run back toward the truck when he realized his way was blocked by ten zombies. One man with one branch could not fight that many, especially when more were behind him.

Megamind ran off in another direction. As he ran, he wasn't sure where he was going, all he knew was that he had to get away from the zombies chasing after him.

As he ran, he avoided low branches but didn't notice the large root sticking out of the ground. His foot caught on it and he tripped. Falling down to the ground completely and with great force, he dropped his weapon and it rolled about a foot away. Megamind went to grab it as five zombies were coming up on him.

As he still lay on the ground, a zombie bent down over him to begin its feast, but stopped as the thick stick was jammed up through its abdomen. Megamind stood up quickly and pushed the impaled zombie against a tree, catching another in its path. The back of the branch that was sticking out of the first zombie's back impaled the second one through the abdomen as well.

Megamind then yanked the branch out with great force and hit another zombie in the head. A second later, another one had the same fate. As the final zombie was upon him, the first two impaled zombies began their march toward him again. Megamind brought the branch up high and drove it straight through the uninjured zombie's face.

The branch went straight through its head, the face breaking around it like glass. Since the branch was going downward, the other end of it went straight down into the pelvic area of one of the impaled zombies. The branch broke through bone and cartilage just enough to separate the pubis bone, leaving no way for the zombie to walk. This still left the final impaled zombie. Megamind brought up the branch one last time and stabbed that one in the face as well just as it opened its mouth.

The branch went straight through its forehead and out the other end, causing brain matter and blood to splatter out with it. The zombie's body went limp and Megamind yanked the thick stick out.

Megamind stood among the carnage and listened for any other zombies in the woods that surrounded him. He heard nothing, meaning that he must have lost the others.

His attention was then brought to the zombie that lay on the ground that had no pelvic area. There was no more attachment to the limbs, just an empty area between its legs.

The zombie was still growling, and Megamind rolled his eyes and stabbed it through the head with yet another crunch of bone and squash of blood and brain matter. Then it was silent.

**…**

There were a few zombies that remained in the alleyway where Zane and Jim were staying. Roxanne, the Warden, and Frank took care of them and then looked around for any sign of Megamind. Roxanne started to run up the stairs to Jim and Zane's hide out when she saw something strange on the ground.

It was a gate. It appeared to have broken off of something, and the metal matched exactly with the steps that led up to Jim and Zane's hideout. Roxanne's eyes then widened as she saw the handcuffs that were attached to the top and the blood that surrounded the area where it had obviously fallen.

Roxanne's mouth was open and she could feel a sob forming in her throat. As the Warden and Frank came up beside her to see what she was looking at, their eyes widened as well.

The sob finally escaped, and Roxanne put her hands to her mouth. She fell to her knees in disbelief and was about to start crying her eyes out when the Warden said, "This doesn't mean anything."

Roxanne looked up at him and said, "What?"

"I said, this doesn't mean anything. Megamind could have escaped."

"Yeah, he's a slippery little bastard," Frank said with a smirk. "I would bet all my money that he did escape. If…you know…I _had_ money."

Roxanne looked away from the Warden and up at the door to Jim and Zane's hideout. Her expression turned hard and she stood up and began marching over to the stairs.

The Warden started walking up after her, saying in a low sharp voice, "Roxanne! Get back here! Those men are dangerous and they have weapons!"

"Yeah? Well so do I," Roxanne said angrily to herself as she made her way up to the top platform.

Her expression became curious though as she saw a zombie lying on the stairs. Its head was kicked in and it appeared to have been trampled. She raised an eyebrow in curiosity before stepping over it.

Once facing the door to the hideout though, she realized that she had no possible way of getting in, unless they didn't lock the door. Roxanne mentally rolled her eyes at herself as she knew that thought was absurd. She reached out her hand anyway and gripped the door knob.

As she slowly began turning the knob, it never haulted her – the knob kept allowing her to turn it. Roxanne opened the door, amazed that it wasn't locked. The Warden came up behind her and shoved his way past so that he was first. Putting his gun at the ready in front of him, he looked around at the dark room.

There were no sounds of talking or of footsteps. There was no noise at all. The Warden kept his gun out in front of him though as he made his way through every room. Upon making it to the last and final room, he saw bed sheets tied together and lying across the room. It looked like what a teenager would do if he was sneaking out of his room late at night after being grounded by his parents.

The sheets led into a small bathroom, and they were tied tightly around a toilet and sink, forming a triangle. From the bathroom it went out the window.

The Warden shook his head and said, "There is no way."

Upon reaching forward and curling his hand around the sheets though, he realized that there was something underneath.

"What the-" he said as he began un-doing the tied sheets.

Upon unraveling the sheets, he discovered bungee cords and rope, all tied together in some type of strange contraption.

The Warden stood up and walked over to the open window, stuck his head out, and looked down. Sure enough, they had made it successfully down to the ground. They had to let go and fall a few feet but other than that, they had successfully escaped.

"Damn!" the Warden said angrily as he banged his fist on the windowsill. "They got away."

"What do we do now?" Roxanne asked as the Warden walked past her and out the door.

The Warden didn't answer as he continued walking down the steps. He came up behind Frank, Roxanne following, and said, "We'll check and see if the truck it still there. If it's not then-" he didn't finish his sentence, but Frank nodded in understanding.

The Warden, Frank, and Roxanne made it to the area where the truck had been parked. Upon realizing that it wasn't there, Frank let out a laugh and said, "See? I told you he was a slippery bastard!"

"Indeed he is," the Warden said with slight amusement in his voice. "I would know after all."

Roxanne smiled a bit before realization hit her, "But this means that he went back to camp…we have to go and-"

"Not _we_," Frank said. "_Us_." He pointed at himself and the Warden.

Roxanne furrowed her eyebrows and said, "What about me? You saw me back at camp, I can defend myself against zombies!"

"That may be true Roxanne, but you still have too much emotional attachment to the things," the Warden said.

"What's that supposed to-" Roxanne started, but was interrupted by Frank.

"Bridgette."

That was all he had to say before Roxanne closed her mouth and she began breathing heavy.

The Warden stepped forward and placed his hand on her shoulder.

"We'll take you back to the Barth, you stay there and keep everyone there safe. Alright?" he said in a comforting tone.

Roxanne didn't reply for a moment before nodding her head.

**…**

**…**


	18. Chapter 18

****I didn't have enough time to proof-read this chapter, so I apologize if there are any mistakes.

**Dead**

**Eighteen**

**_ "So you'll aim toward the sky, and you'll rise high today. Fly away, far away, far from pain."_**

**You'll Aim Towards The Sky by Grandaddy**

Megamind had ditched the stick, finding it too much of a hassle to carry. If another zombie threatened him he would just have to find something else.

It had been half an hour, and he was still walking in the same direction. There was no way he could make it back to his truck – the place was too overrun.

Roxanne had come across his mind more than once, so many times in fact he couldn't count. Was she alive? Was she okay? Where was she? Also, where were the others?

Most, if not all of them, had escaped; that was for certain since the Barth was no longer at the site.

Megamind's thoughts were interrupted as he saw a figure lying on the ground ahead of him. He squinted to try and decipher what it was. It wasn't nearly as dark as it had been, the sunrise had tinted the sky a pleasant pink to mix with the left-over dark blue of night.

Megamind walked forward, and it wasn't until he was about five feet away that he realized there were two figures on the ground. When they were both at his feet, he realized one of the figures was the body of the little girl that he had shot, what seemed like forever ago.

Flies were all over her, buzzing loudly and sucking on her undead skin. The stench of her rotting was strong, and her flesh was visibly decomposing, especially around where the bullet entered her skull. The figure that lay beside her was a zombie that appeared to have once been a young man.

The middle of her back had been torn into and eaten by the zombie that lay next to her. Her spine showed through the large, gaping hole. This appeared to be the flies' most favorite area, for they were buzzing around happily in the open wound.

Megamind tipped his head at the zombie that lay next to the dead little girl. He bent down next to it and looked at it. Around its mouth was covered in blood, and its head was home to a gunshot wound.

Megamind furrowed his eyebrows at this. Did this mean that his group was at the campground, or that they had at least gone in this direction? He stood up and looked around, as though checking to see if he could see anyone from his group. Sure enough, he couldn't.

It only took a couple minutes until he got to the abandoned campground, but upon sight, it appeared that the place was unoccupied. This didn't stop him from checking though.

Megamind had only been walking through the camp ground for a minute when he heard a noise to his left. It sounded like someone sniffing from a runny nose. It was only a moment later when he heard the stifled sound of a sob.

Following the sound, Megamind walked over to a tent about five feet away and looked all around it, but saw no one. He also could no longer hear the sound. He tipped his head to see if he could hear it again but to no avail; the only sounds he could hear were bugs buzzing around and birds singing their morning song. He was starting to believe it was just his imagination, but there was one place he hadn't looked yet – inside the tent.

Walking around to the front, he gripped the zipper and pulled it down. The man inside gave a cry of fright and shrunk back even further into the corner of the tent. Megamind held up his hand to show that he wasn't going to hurt him while keeping the door flap open with his other hand. The man was Tom, one of the men him, the Warden, and Frank had rescued; but his wife, Morgan, was nowhere in sight. His hand was clasped tightly over his abdomen, where blood had stained his football t-shirt.

Tom's eyes widened as Megamind stepped inside the tent. "Y-you're here," he breathed out forcefully.

Megamind crouched in front of him and looked him in the eyes, "Where are the others?"

Tom shook his head and said in a dazed manner, "They were everywhere…they came out of the woods…I didn't know what to do, I didn't know what to do." Tears started flowing down his cheeks and he let out a broken sob. "They took my wife…it was as though she didn't even have a chance to escape. I tried to make it to a vehicle with Alexa, but they grabbed her…right out of my hands. They bit and tore at her they-" Tom then broke down into heart wrenching sobs.

Megamind's expression had hardened. Not only was his wife dead, but the zombies had gotten Alexa too. Alexa, the little girl who had been playing with a crab on the beach just a few days ago; the little girl who had finally gotten her parents back.

Tom's sobs had subsided and he gulped. His face was sweaty, and he had bags under his eyes. Megamind reached forward and took his hands off of his abdomen, then lifted his shirt to see an open wound with teeth marks along the top edge.

Megamind sighed and stared at it as Tom babbled on, "One of 'em got me when I was trying to climb onto the motor home…it didn't even…didn't even tear my shirt just my skin. Crazy 'nt it?" he let out a small laugh then before he started coughing.

Looking off to the side, Megamind saw a gun lying on the floor of the tent next to him. He didn't reach for it though, instead he asked, "Tom, where are the others?"

Tom furrowed his eyebrows and looked at him, but didn't answer his question. "Little-little Amelia…she's dead. One of the dead people was eating her…I shot that son of a bitch. S'good thing that her parents aren't alive, now at least they're dead together y'know?"

Megamind stared at him, growing slightly impatient with the lack of response to his question. "Where are the others? I need to find them."

Tom swallowed and leaned his head back against the wall of the tent, which already looked about to collapse under his weight. A loose tear escaped his eye and he didn't answer for a few moments.

"I-I think they said something about a highway," Tom answered finally.

"And-and did you see a woman with short brown hair? Did she make it?" Megamind asked.

Tom looked as though he was thinking hard until he answered, "I saw her get into the motor home with the others...I believe…"

That was enough of an answer, it didn't seem like Tom would be fit to answer too many more questions with the state he was in. Megamind's eyes scanned over to the gun again.

"Who shot…Amelia?" Tom babbled. "Was it…was it you? How could you shoot such an…innocent being…how-"

"She was a zombie," Megamind answered seriously.

Tom looked at him with confusion at first before smiling a bit and saying, "I never…never thought this when you were…were a villain…but you actually do…do have a heart. Right?"

Megamind didn't answer, he didn't have a chance to, Tom grabbed the handgun weakly and held it out with a shaky hand. The gun clicked as his hand continued shaking.

"Would you mind…sharing that same kindness…with me?" he breathed.

Megamind looked at the gun before taking it. Tom's hand automatically fell to his side once the gun was removed. Then, he closed his and swallowed again.

Tom breathed in one last rattling breath, opened his eyes, and said, "I'm ready."

Megamind clicked back the hammer and pulled the trigger.

**…**

It took about an hour for the Warden and Frank to find a car with enough gas to travel in. This one was leaps and bounds better than the last one they had hotwired.

It was an old orange truck and it rattled a bit but it was decent enough for their trip. By the time they were traveling on the road, the sunrise was almost completely gone and replaced with the warm morning sun. There were fewer zombies around their camp, but they were still all over the place.

This wasn't quite what concerned them the most though, instead it was the fact that the truck they had left Megamind was parked on the road. The Warden put on the brakes and him and Frank looked at each other before nodding.

The Warden turned off the car and they got out. They didn't see any zombies around the truck, but could hear them somewhere. Frank kept watch while the Warden looked inside the truck.

"He's not in there," the Warden said.

The two ditched their other vehicle and got inside their old one. After hotwiring it, they drove forward a little ways so they could see their old camp. Zombies still roamed the beach and woods, some had caught sight of them and had begun slumping over.

There was absolutely no way that Megamind was still there, but Frank stood up in his seat and leaned out the window anyway. Looking over the top of the car, he shouted, "Megs! Megs!"

There was no answer. He looked along the beach to see if he could see any remnants of him, in case he had gotten overrun by zombies. Instead, he could still see the large, red stain of where Bridgette had been feasted on.

Frank got back in the truck and sat down. As he rolled the window up, he said to the Warden, "He's not here, but I still think he's alive. These truck doors were closed, none of the windows were broken. Also, there's no blood around the truck. I don't know where he is, but he's somewhere around here."

The Warden didn't say anything, he sat pondering over what to do.

**…**

Roxanne sat on top of the Barth with her legs crossed Indian style. She had a gun resting on her lap as she stared out at the silent highway.

It was night time, the Warden and Frank had come by just to leave thirty minutes later. They stated that they were going to stay in the woods until they found Megamind. They simply grabbed a little bit of food, as much gasoline that they could find from abandoned cars, as took off in the afternoon sun.

Though it had been pretty hot during the day, the night was cool. This indicated that Fall was getting closer. Roxanne had snatched a rather large grey sweatshirt from one of the abandoned cars, so she wasn't too cold, just moderately chilly.

Minion had been pacing around all day, visibly worried about his best friend. He wouldn't talk to anyone unless they spoke to him. Regina had been sitting on the highway rail all day, just staring off blankly into the woods. She hadn't spoken to anyone all day. No one could blame her. After all, her niece had been eaten by zombies not too long ago.

Roxanne shuddered as she remembered it all too well. She remembered them being overrun; Margaret, Phil, and their sons disappearing; Morgan, Bridgette, and Alexa being eaten.

This life was a nightmare, and she didn't know how she was going to survive it without Megamind.

**...**

**...**


	19. Chapter 19

Oh my gosh, I am SOOOO sorry it has taken me so long to update! I hit a SERIOUS writers block. My problem is that I know the future of the story, just I can get stuck figuring out how to get there. Anyway...

ENJOY.

**Dead**

**Nineteen**

**_"My dedication to all that I've sworn to protect. I carry out my order without a regret. A declaration embedded deep under my skin, a permanent reminder of how we began. No hesitation when I am commanded to strike. You need to know that you're in the fight of your life. You will be shown how I've become indestructible."_**

**"Indestructible" by Disturbed**

One positive thing about Megamind's situation? The fact that he now had a gun with a few bullets inside. This was loads easier than carrying around a branch. Another positive was the tree he had managed to find; it had branches that were low enough to grab onto, and they were thick enough to not break. This did not mean the climbing task wasn't difficult however. At the middle of the trunk, there was a large gap between branches that proved difficult to climb to the very top. It was already difficult to climb with a broken thumb. He almost fell on his way up three times.

At last, Megamind found a nook in the tree where two branches were side-by-side, perfect for a seat. There was also one branch to the right, so that he wouldn't lean over too far and fall all the way down to the ground. The left side, that was a different story. There was nothing to stop his fall if he were to tip over too far in his sleep. This wasn't too much of a concern though, Megamind doubted he would be getting that much sleep anyway. How could he? Living in a zombie infested world, getting a good night's sleep was rare. Megamind was just thankful that zombies couldn't get in trees.

The moon was high in the sky, showing that it was late at night. Megamind leaned back against the tree and stared up through the branches at the stars that were scattered across the dark canvas above him. It was a reminder of when him and Roxanne lay on their private beach and star gazed.

No matter how hard Megamind tried to desperately shove the negative thoughts out of his head, they kept returning. He could imagine Roxanne getting torn and ripped apart by zombies, being eaten, screaming, wondering where he was and why he wasn't saving her. The scenario was so clear in his mind it was as though he had actually seen it happen. He could even smell the blood as it spilled from her body, and the foul odor that the undead brought with them.

Megamind shoved those thoughts out of his mind once again and soon dozed off into a somewhat unconscious state; it was the only kind of sleep he could get.

**…**

"I don't think we will be able to find him from inside a vehicle," Frank said eventually as him and the Warden drove on the dirt road.

The Warden thought about this and parked the car. The two men stepped out and the Warden looked around and studied his surroundings.

"Did ya hear something?" Frank asked as he brought his knife up at the ready.

"Nah," the Warden said. "Just studying where we are. We need to figure out our way back."

The two men set off on foot away from the safety of the truck. They had grabbed two flashlights from a couple of abandoned cars that had been on the highway where the others were camped out. The beams of light were dancing around the surrounding woods.

"You think we would have come across him by now," Frank said.

"I don't know," the Warden replied. "These woods are pretty wide. I just hope the kid is alright."

"You think there is any chance he could be at the highway already?" Frank asked.

The Warden shook his head. "Nah, no way. With all these zombies around, it is doubtful. Besides, the highway is pretty far away from here."

When the men stumbled upon the abandoned camp, they looked at each other and nodded. They then began to look inside every tent, thinking it too risky to call out Megamind's name in case zombies heard them.

**…**

Early the next morning before the sun had even risen, Megamind was already back on the ground. He was not sure where the group could possibly be, but he was almost positive they did not head in the way of Metro City. So that was the way he walked until he stumbled upon the abandoned campground.

The pain in his thumb was at a dull throb, indicating it was beginning to set itself in the awkward crooked position. Megamind had been pondering over this, and after testing out the handling of his gun, he realized that the crookedness made his shooting far too clumsy. The only thing he could possibly think to do was amateur surgery on his own thumb. Why not simply splint it and wait for it to heal? Because there was no time to wait for things to heal. He was in charge of a whole group; he was responsible for their survival. There was no healing time, he had to cure this clumsiness now, otherwise his clumsy shooting could cause him to simply waste bullets or shoot one of his group members.

Scrounging around through the camp proved to be useful as he came across nails and screws to use. He also came across a pocket knife. This would be too treacherous for killing zombies due to the shortness of it, but it was magnificent for cutting flesh. It was not at magnificent as a legitimate surgical tool like a scalpel, but there was no way he was going to come across one of those. He had to make do with what he had. The only thing he was missing was a tough enough string to use for stitching.

Eventually, after searching through tents for an hour, Megamind came across the small building that was used for purchasing food and other camping stuff. Of course, the necessities like lighters and food were gone, having been stripped clean by other survivors.

After searching for about ten minutes, Megamind came to the conclusion that there was nothing in there he could possibly use. The sudden crashing of a large wave could be heard from outside and Megamind perked up, a thought suddenly coming into his mind.

Megamind walked out to the sand and got on his knees and searched through the sand but realized it was no use. Looking around, his eyes fell upon an area with a lot of brush and the trunk of a tree was lying sideways in the water. The only problem was that it about twenty feet from the shore. The area was already appearing to be deep, which meant that he would not have any footing; but it was the only choice he had.

Standing on the edge of the water, Megamind took off his boots and walked into the water. Since it was the very beginning of Fall, the air was chillier than usual, and this made the water feel colder. Megamind ignored this though as he eventually got in up to his chest. Once he was to the tree trunk that was laying mostly underneath the water, he gripped it and started examining it. Almost immediately, he came across just what he was searching for.

Fishing wire.

The shiny plastic string gleamed in the sunlight and Megamind immediately began untangling it from the tree trunk. There was no doubt that fishermen were bound to get their fishing wire caught on the trunk and they would be forced to cut it.

Once back on shore and holding his long fishing wire, Megamind put his boots back on and tied them.

…

The Warden and Frank were sleeping in the truck when they heard some zombies walk by, moaning and grunting.

The two men immediately woke up, but stayed silent and waited for them to pass. When the ugly miniature herd was a safe enough distance away, the two mean peaked over the backs of their seats and through the back window.

"I can't believe we ever felt safe here," Frank said as he watched them all limp away.

"We should get back to searching," the Warden said as he picked up his weapons.

**…**

Megamind sat on the floor of the small cabin that once held food and other necessities. He had looked in the freezer that held ice, though his hopes were low in finding ice. Sure enough, there wasn't even any ice bags left inside, and the ice on the sides of the large container had long since melted. The only way he could numb his hand before the surgery was to loop a hair tie that he found in a tent around his wrist really tight.

Megamind's hand had lost feeling and was turning a darker blue than usual, showing the signs of extremely low blood circulation.

Picking up the pocket knife and placing his hand on the cashier counter, Megamind took a deep breath and stuck the knife into his flesh. He let out a funny noise from his throat at the dull pain. Immediately, blood started flowing out of the wound, but he continued. The sound of ripping flesh ended as he was then ready to insert the pins. Quickly, he inserted the first panel pin into its rightful position. He let out a small shout of pain as the needle jarred the bone and dug into the muscle. Cutting off the circulation to his hand definitely did not numb all senses, and he was not expecting it to.

After the first nail, Megamind took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Without thinking about what he was doing to himself, he opened his eyes and forced the other pin into his hand as well, sustaining a cry of pain and weakness, he instead stomped the floor hard and closed his eyes.

**…**

The Warden and Frank were passing through the camp ground again when the Warden noticed that some of the tents were open that were not open the day before.

"I'm telling you, this cluster here was all closed!" the Warden said. "All of these tents were zipped shut. I remember because I went inside them and zipped them all up when I was finished!"

"You're crazy," Frank said rudely. "How could you possibly remember something like that? There are like, over a hundred tents here!"

"Frank, I'm telling you-" he was interrupted as he heard a loud bang coming from behind them.

The two men whipped around but saw nothing out of the ordinary.

"What was that?" the Warden asked. "It sounded like it was coming from over there." He pointed toward the opposite end of the campground.

The two men looked at each other and Frank held up his gun and said, "Only one way to find out."

**…**

Megamind stitched up his thumb successfully, having flapped the skin back over in its rightful position. Once he was finished with the last stitch, he tied a small, tight knot. He placed the remaining string between his teeth and began sawing off the remaining length. Once the string snapped, he spit out the bit that was in his mouth onto the floor and observed his handiwork.

His thumb was covered in blood and the stitching was as ugly as any other stitching looked on the first day of it being done. There were bulges in his skin where the two panel pins were settled, and there were two large holes on either end of the stitching since he had to use another panel pin to poke a hole through his skin so that the string could go through. This also meant that his thumb was still bleeding through those holes.

Megamind removed the hair tie from around his wrist, but did not attempt to move his hand, for it was still mostly numb.

There was a noise from outside the cabin, causing Megamind to go on automatic alert. It sounded like someone was walking around outside. Megamind grabbed his gun and held it at the ready as best he could with his right hand still numb.

There was then the sound of footsteps coming onto the porch and the doorknob began turning. The door then swung open suddenly and the Warden and Frank ran in with their weapons out and at the ready.

All three of their poses fell however when they saw each other. Megamind couldn't help the grin that broke out when he saw the two familiar faces. The Warden chuckled as Frank smiled.

"Dude!" Frank cried cheerfully. "We've been looking everywhere for you!"

"We knew that Hal didn't get the better of you," the Warden said with a grin in his voice.

Megamind chuckled as he rubbed the back of his neck, for there was sweat coating it from the pressure of performing his own surgery.

"Woah man, what happened to your hand?" Frank grimaced and squinted at it. "It looks disgusting."

Megamind looked at it and simply said, "I broke it."

The Warden and Frank continued staring at him and Megamind shrugged and said, "I also sort of had to perform surgery on it. Y'know, place some pins in there and whatnot."

Frank's mouth fell open and he cried, "Why didn't you just splint it?!"

"Splints require the limb to not bend. I need the use of my thumb in order to kill zombies. Besides, a splint means I would have to wait for it to recover." Megamind answered as though Frank were stupid for thinking such a thing.

"Won't that need time for healing too though?" Frank asked in the same manner.

Megamind shrugged and looked at his handiwork again. "Probably, but whose going to make me wait for it to heal?"

"Minion," the Warden and Frank said at the same time.

Megamind rolled his eyes and said, "No he won't. You know why? Because I'm going to cover it with something so that he doesn't see it. And none of you are going to tell him about it." He pointed at both of them with his injured hand.

"Got it."

"You have our word."

Megamind walked past them and out the door and the Warden and Frank looked at each other. Frank shrugged and followed Megamind. The Warden could hear him saying, "That actually looks pretty bad ass, not gonna lie. Disgusting, but bad ass."

The Warden looked over at the counter where there was a pool of blood. He grimaced and then walked out of the cabin.

**…**

**I apologize if I did not explain the surgery part thoroughly. **


End file.
